This episode is baed on a very personal letter sent by Bram Stoke (the author of Dracula) to Walt Whitman. Stoker express (in almost homoerotic) tones his admiration for Whitman - and the episode points out that Walt Whitman has been suggested as a model for Dracula!
This episode is baed on a very personal letter sent by Bram Stoke (the author of Dracula) to Walt Whitman. Stoker express (in almost homoerotic) tones his admiration for Whitman - and the episode points out that Walt Whitman has been suggested as a model for Dracula!
Episode 123 - Call Me By Your Name Again
0:00 Introduction
Welcome to Celebrate Poe - a examination of the life, works, and times of America’s Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe. This podcast also looks at some of the many influences ON Poe’s writing, as well as some of the countless writers who have been influenced BY Poe. This is episode 123 - Call Me By Your Name Again - Much of this episode deals with a letter written by the author of Dracula to Walt Whitman, and it just might be one of the most amazing things you have ever heard - so stay with me.
And if you have any comments or questions please contact me at celebratepoe@gmail.com. I really welcome and treasure any comments or suggestions you might have, so please do not hesitate to write me at celebratepoe@gmail.com
01:18 Intro to the subject of Poe and the undead
Now remember that Poe never specifically used the word vampire in his works, he wrote five stories between 1835 and 1842 that in many ways form the basis for the majority of his prose works - and all those works deal with the undead. Those stories are Berenice, Morella, Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Oval Portrait. In all these tales, Poe writes about the essentially vampiric nature of human relationships - the love that persists beyond the grave. By the way, the original title for Dracula was The Undead.
Poe also writes about this love that exists beyond the grave in some of his greatest POEMS - all you have to do is look at The Raven with the preoccupation of its narrator with his deceased love. Poe wrote about the neglect of a former love in his first published work, Tamerlane, and continued this theme until his last complete poem - Annabelle Lee
02:30 Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee; —
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee —
With a love that the wingéd seraphs in Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre,
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me —
Yes! — that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
04:18 Continuation regarding inspiration for Dracula
While Poe and Stoker’s works were separated by decades, we need to remember that both writers produced their works in the nineteenth century -
at a time when people were just understanding how the world works. Not surprisingly, horror stories that question this were popular.
It has been said that Dracula has sold more copies than any book ever written with the exception of the King’s James Version of the Bible - tho how many people have read it is questionable.
But before this podcast gets into the actual text of Dracula, I think it would be really helpful to look more at Bram Stocker and some of the circumstances surrounding the writing of Dracula. Doing this can really add to our understanding of how our culture has looked at Bram Stoker’s masterpiece. And you might hear some ideas that challenge you, surprise you, and maybe even make you angry. Stay with me, and I’’ll show you what I mean.
05:23 Stoker’s childhood and youth
First,I would like to go back to Bram Stoker’s childhood on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. His mother was an extremely active social reformer. Stoker was a very sickly child - we don’t exactly know why - but he was confined to his bed for much of his early life. During that time, his mother entertained him with graphic Irish stories and legends, and that included grandiose supernatural tales and accounts of death and disease. During his mother’s youth, much of the community suffered from cholera - remember in early episodes, I talked about cholera, as death from diarrhea.
Possibly some of those graphic stories served as a foundation for some of the graphic Gothic motifs that Stoker later used in his works.
He eventually recovered from his illnesses - no one really knows how - and apparently became quite athletic - especially in football, racing, and weightlifting. He entered Trinity College, Dublin - one of his classmates was fellow Irishman Oscar Wilde - tho they never became very close.
06:47 Life as a young writer
Like his father, he worked with the Irish civil service. During this time, he also began writing short stories and theatre reviews - an activity that was to change his life - but we will get into that, as well as what many scholars have referred to as his basically loveless marriage, in the next episode.
Although we know Bram Stoker as a writer who has become extremely well-known, when he was 24 years old, he was still months away from publishing his first work.
But he had read some of the writings of Walt Whitman, and realized that he had found a literary idol. In fact, when his schoolmates at Trinity College universally criticized Whitman, Bram Stoker praised his works.
Bram Stoker must have felt a real affinity for Whitman’s writings, because when Stoker was twenty four years old, he wrote a letter expressed his admiration and adoration to the American. Stoker saw Whitman as a kindred spirit.
07:57 Letter to Whitman
Imagine - these are Victorian times when strangers just did not express their feelings to other strangers, and were very cautions and reserved in what they said - and here is young Bram Stoker expresing his inner self-doubts, adoration for a fellow artist, and intense feelings in what amounted to a love letter written to a complete stranger thousands of miles away.
And that stranger was another MAN!
After he wrote it, Stoker realized that sending the letter might be highly inappropriate, and put the letter away in his desk. But fours later - on Valentine’s Day - of all days - he summoned up enough courage to send the letter with an explanatory note,
For that explanatory note, Stoker wrote:
My dear Mr. Whitman.
I hope you will not consider this letter from an utter stranger a liberty. Four years ago I wrote the enclosed draft of a letter which I intended to copy out and send to you — it has lain in my desk since then — when I heard that you were addressed as Mr. Whitman. It speaks for itself and needs no comment. The four years which have elapsed have made me love your work fourfold, and I can truly say that I have ever spoken as your friend. You know what hostile criticism your work sometimes evokes here, and I wage a perpetual war with many friends on your behalf. But I am glad to say that I have been the means of making your work known to many who were scoffers at first. The years which have passed have not been uneventful to me, and I have felt and thought and suffered much in them, and I can truly say that from you I have had much pleasure and much consolation. I write this openly because I feel that with you one must be open. Do not think me cheeky for writing this. I only hope we may sometime meet and I shall be able perhaps to say what I cannot write. I am sorry that you’re not strong. Many of us are hoping to see you in Ireland. We had arranged to have a meeting for you. I do not know if you like getting letters. If you do I shall only be too happy to send you news of how thought goes among the men I know. With truest wishes for your health and happiness believe me
Your friend
Bram Stoker.
The original letter - remember Stoker had never met Walt Whitman before -
was also included.
If you are the man I take you to be you will like to get this letter. If you are not I don’t care whether you like it or not and only ask that you put it into the fire without reading any farther. But I believe you will like it. I don’t think there is a man living, even you who are above the prejudices of the class of small-minded men, who wouldn’t like to get a letter from a younger man, a stranger, across the world — a man living in an atmosphere prejudiced to the truths you sing and your manner of singing them. The idea that arises in my mind is whether there is a man living who would have the pluck to burn a letter in which he felt the smallest atom of interest without reading it. I believe you would and that you believe you would yourself. You can burn this now and test yourself, and all I will ask for my trouble of writing this letter, which for all I can tell you may light your pipe with or apply to some more ignoble purpose — is that you will in some manner let me know that my words have tested your impatience. Put it in the fire if you like — but if you do you will miss the pleasure of the next sentence which ought to be that you have conquered an unworthy impulse. A man who is certain of his own strength might try to encourage himself a piece of bravo, but a man who can write, as you have written, the most candid words that ever fell from the lips of a mortal man— can have no fear for his own strength. If you have gone this far you may read the letter and I feel in writing now that I am talking to you. If I were before your face I would like to shake hands with you, for I feel that I would like you. I would like to call YOU Comrade and to talk to you as men who are not poets do not often talk. I think that at first a man would be ashamed, for a man cannot in a moment break the habit of comparative reticence that has become second nature to him; but I know I would not long be ashamed to be natural before you. You are a true man, and I would like to be one myself, and so I would be towards you as a brother and as a pupil to his master. In this age no man becomes worthy of the name without an effort. You have shaken off the shackles and your wings are free. I have the shackles on my shoulders still — but I have no wings. - Now what does Stoker mean by that - sounds like a closet cast to me.
Stoker goes on to say -
If you are going to read this letter any further I should tell you that I am not prepared to “give up all else” so far as words go. The only thing I am prepared to give up is prejudice, and before I knew you I had begun to throw overboard my cargo, but it is not all gone yet. I do not know how you will take this letter. I have not addressed you in any form as I hear that you dislike to a certain degree the conventional forms in letters. I am writing to you because you are different from other men. If you were the same as the mass I would not write at all. As it is I must either call you Walt Whitman or not call you at all — and I have chosen the latter course. - HUH not call you at all?
I do not know whether it is unusual for you to get letters from utter strangers who have not even the claim of literary brotherhood to write you. I will only hope that sometime I may meet you face to face and perhaps shake hands with you. If I ever do it will be one of the greatest pleasures of my life …I have read your poems with my door locked late at night and I have read them on the seashore where I could look all round me and see no more sign of human life than the ships out at sea: and here I often found myself waking up with the book open before me. I love all poetry, and high generous thoughts make the tears rush to my eyes, but sometimes a word or a phrase of yours takes me away from the world around me and places me in an ideal land surrounded by realities more than any poem I ever read. Be assured of this Walt Whitman — that a man of less than half your own age, reared a conservative in a conservative country, and who has always heard your name cried down by the great mass of people who mention it, here felt his heart leap towards you across the Atlantic and his soul swelling at the words or rather the thoughts. It is vain for me to quote all instances of what thoughts of yours I like best — for I like them all and you must feel you are reading the true words of one who feels with you. You see, I have called you by your name.
WOOH - I have to stop there. When I saw those words - I was reminded of the recent movie Call Me By Your Name. I looked up the phrase call me by your name, and it means to want another person to the point of possession - or that two people or forces of energy have become so much a part of each other that the two are now one - the deepest kind of intimacy.
And from a religious standpoint - the earliest use of the phrase - I have called you by my name - is from Isaah in the Old Testament of the Bible -
Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. Nor the flame scorch you.”
Is Stoker somehow expressing a relationship or possible connection with Whitman that is more than physical life - that is spiritual and will always protect him?
Well, back to the correspondence -
I have been more candid with you — have said more about myself to you than I have said to anyone before. You will not be angry with me if you have read so far. You will not laugh at me for writing this to you. It was no small effort that I began to write and I feel reluctant to stop, but I must not tire you any more. If you would ever care to have more you can imagine, for you have a great heart, how much pleasure it would be to me to write more to you. How sweet a thing it is for a strong healthy man with a woman’s eye and a child’s wishes to feel that he can speak to a man who can be if he wishes father, and brother and wife to his soul. I don’t think you will laugh, Walt Whitman, nor despise me, but at all events I thank you for all the love and sympathy you have given me in common with my kind.
Hmmmm.
Now what does Stoker mean by “my kind?” Could he be referring to MORE than artistic commonalities - those who disagree with the conventional standards of society? - a kind of inner knowledge about himself that terrified Bram Stoker - remember Stoker was nearly 30 - an old bachelor by the standards of the time. When he DID marry the next year, he married the beauty previously courted by Oscar Wilde.
Had Bram Stoker picked up on the homoerotic undertones of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and felt that his inner conflicts were being expressed.
19:31 Reply from Whitman
Stoker received a response just three weeks later - which is saying a lot because this was 1876 - and mail had to cross the Atlantic Ocean by ship.
On March 6, Whitman wrote his young admirer:
BRAM STOKER, —
My dear young man, — Your letters have been most welcome to me — welcome to me as a Person and then as Author — I don’t know which most. You did so well to write to me so unconventionally, so fresh, so manly, and affectionately too. I, too, hope (though it is not probable) that we will some day personally meet each other. Meantime, I send my friendship and thanks.
At the time, Whitman had suffered a stroke, and unsure about his health.
My physique is entirely shatter’d from paralysis and other ailments. But I am up and dress’d, and get out every day a little, live here quite lonesome, but hearty, and good spirits. — Write to me again.
But within a year, Whitman almost miraculously regained complete function of his body, and his poetry reached new heights. And Stoker continued writing, producing his masterpiece, Dracula.
20:58 Whitman as main influence for Dracula
According to Dracula expert Professor Elizabeth Miller, the main influence for the fictional character of Dracula was not the brutal Vlad the Impaler, but writer Walt Whitman. According to Doctor Miller, Walt Whitman was the 19th century's most important author because he influenced important authors like Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker. He was an author that was read not so much by the public, but by the great authors. Both Wilde and Stoker said he was the world's greatest writer. Remember the episode yesterday where I talked about Oscar Wilde actually visiting Walt Whitman during one of Wilde’s visit to the United States.
And Barbara Belford has written that "Whitman's influence on Dracula was profound. Stoker wrote that, Whitman was "'father...to his soul,' In a way, this is really strange, because the vampire at times resembled Whitman. Both Whitman and the vampire during certain times have long white hair, a heavy moustache, and great height and strength. (Walt Whitman was a really big guy.)
22:39 Whitman’s Tickle Drops poem
Much of Whitman’s poetry celebrates the miracle of death and the deathlike quality of love - concepts that were central to much of Bram Stoker’s works.
I’d like to conclude the main part of this episode with Walt Whitman’s P11 line poem - Tickle Drops.
Trickle drops! my blue veins leaving!
O drops of me! trickle, slow drops,
Candid from me falling, drip, bleeding drops,
From wounds made to free you whence you were prison'd
From my face, from my forehead and lips,
From my breast, from within where I was conceal'd, press forth red drops, confession drops,
Stain every page, stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops…
Let them know your scarlet heat—let them glisten;
Saturate them with yourself, all ashamed and wet;
Glow upon all I have written, or shall write, bleeding drops;
Let it all be seen in your light, blushing drops.
23:53 Future Episodes
The next episode - an episode that will drop tomorrow around midnight - is largely based on material that was taken from one of the first episdoes - the war of 1812, and has been downloaded more than ANY episode so far.
Called The Conflicts of 1812 and 2001 - this episode also deals with what appears to be the second armed conflict at the United States Capitol building. To paraphrase the old saying “history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes’ - the conflict of 1814 in Washington D.C. has terrifying parellels to the conflict of 2001 in Washington.
25:48 Sources
Sources for this episode include Dead Brides; Vampire Tales by Edgar Allan Poe with a foreword by H.P. Lovecraft, When Bram Met Walt by Meredith Hindley for the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849 by Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, The Vampire Book by Sally Regan, The Vampire in Legend, Fact, and Art by Basil Cooper, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture, and the Complete Works of Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman.
Why not visit my podcast web site at celebratepoe.buzzsprout.com - click on the episode you want to learn more about to see its show notes and a transcript.
26:07 Outro
Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.