The Man Who Was Poe

On January 19, 1809, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At some time or another during childhood or adolescence, almost every child in America falls under his spell. I remember the first time my mother read me “The Raven;” later I became obsessed with his dark mysteries and macabre short stories. Poe only lived for a brief forty years, but he was the first well-known American writer who attempted to live on proceeds from his works as an author—resulting in a difficult, erratic financial life. Things haven’t changed much in two hundred years!

In 1989 Avi wrote a multilayered, haunting tribute to this literary master, The Man Who Was Poe. When working on the book, Avi resided in Providence, Rhode Island, and focused the novel on the brief period of time Poe also lived there, November 1848, while he was courting Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman. From this period comes the daguerreotype of Poe most frequently reproduced, and at one point in the book, Poe goes to this studio to have this picture taken.

The story opens with Edmund and his twin, Sis, living alone in a tenement room, without food. Their caretaker, their aunt, has been gone for two days. Ignoring his aunt’s explicit instruction, Edmund leaves to find something for them to eat. When he returns, he faces his worst possible nightmare—his sister has vanished.

Running into a man who calls himself Dupin (Edgar Allan Poe), Edmund enlists his aid to find his aunt and sister. In fog-shrouded streets of Providence, with villainous creatures who haunt the docks, a tale of mystery and deception ensues. It is, in fact, just the type of tale Poe himself might have spun out of his fevered brain, involving trysts in a cemetery, ghosts, and a bank robbery. A reader almost has to outline the plot to keep track of all of the puzzles explored in the book. In the meantime, the story moves breathlessly along.

It is unclear, as can often be the case in post-modern novels, whether Poe himself is simply writing this story—or if events are happening, and Poe is trying to make a story out of them. Either way, readers learn about Poe’s life, the death of his beloved wife, Virginia (Sis), and his attempt to find a new wife and stabilize himself in Providence. All of these details are seamlessly woven into this mystery and suspense story. Often taught to fifth through seventh graders, the book definitely gives young readers the background they need if, and when, they become Poe addicts. Historical fiction, mystery, and horror, The Man Who Was Poe dishes them all out in equal measure.

Happy birthday Edgar Allan Poe; I will reread “The Raven” in your honor. As a child, I thought that the phrase “Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore,’” was one of the coolest lines written in the English language. I still do.

Here’s a passage from The Man Who Was Poe: