This episode deals with the most valuable book ever written by an American -Tamerlane and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The book was published in Boston. and was Poe’s first publication. George (and the ghost of Mr. Poe) read several poems from Tamerlane and Other Poems, including I Saw Thee on Thy Bridal Day, Visit of the Dead, and The Happiest Hour.
This episode deals with the most valuable book ever written by an American -Tamerlane and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The book was published in Boston. and was Poe’s first publication. George (and the ghost of Mr. Poe) read several poems from Tamerlane and Other Poems, including I Saw Thee on Thy Bridal Day, Visit of the Dead, and The Happiest Hour.
George Bartley - plain text
Ghost of Mr. Poe - bold text
00:00 Intro
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Welcome to Celebrate Poe. My name is George Bartley, and this is episode 138 -The Most Valuable American Book. Stay with this podcast episode to learn how one of Mr. Poe’s least successful publications became the most valuable book ever written by an American. By the way, the music for the intro and outro for this podcast is from ‘Come Rest in This Bosom’ - said to be Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite song.
And just as scheduled, here comes the ghost of Mr. Poe.
GHOST ENTER SOUND
After several weeks of episodes about the celebration of Halloween as it relates to Edgar Poe, this podcast is returning to Poe’s youthful years.
01:30 Life and publication in Boston
Now several months after Poe concluded his studies at the University of Virginia, he decided - somewhat surprisingly - to go to the city of Boston.
Mr. Poe - would you share with us why you might have decided to go to Boston?
Certainly, Mr. Bartley. I believe that a part of me realized that I did not have a future in Richmond - certainly in John Alllan’s counting house. Living in Boston was my first independent venture, and I felt there was some sort of poetic sentiment in returning to the place of my birth. And as some of you may know, my mother left me a watercolor with an inscription on the back. The inscription was “For my little son Edgar, who should ever love Boston, the place of his birth, and where his mother found her best and most sympathetic friends. I saw this as a good omen - that Boston might be an agreeable place for my literary talents.
Not to mention the fact that Boston had somewhat of a reputation as a literary and publishing center.
Yes. I did enroll in the United States army as a private soldier - giving my name as Edgar A. Perry, that I was born in Boston, and was twenty two years old. I gave my occupation as a clerk, and was assigned to Battery H of the First Artillery in Fort Independence, Boston Harbor.
Perhaps you were not entering a career in the Army from any liking for a soldier’s life. One might even say that after you realized that you were never going to be John Allan’s heir, you decided to leave Richmond and establish a new identity.
Perhaps I simply did not want any connection to John Allan to become apparent. I was 17 years old at the time, and somewhat underage for the army.
Fair enough. But I somehow thought your army days occurred later in your life.
Oh, the majority certainly did occur later - such as my days at Sullivan’s Island and at West Point - and I will certainly talk about them later when appropriate.- but I just wanted to mention my initial encounters with the Army now for chronological purposes.
That certainly is fair.
Actually, this enlistment in the Army was somewhat of an interruption to the beginning of the great business of my life - my passion and purpose - in this case, the publication of my first volume of poems. You see, I published a small collection of poems in 1827 called Tamerlane and Other Poems. Many people have said I thought the publication would be accepted more if I emphasized my Boston connection - so I did not have it printed with my name - but as Tamerlane and Other Poems by a Bostonian.
I still find it most curious that instead of your name under the title, the publisher printed “By a Bostonian.”
I did have the fondest of memories regarding my mother and shared her warm sentiments regarding Boston. Also the phrase “By a Bostonian” might have been a tactic that prevented John Allan from finding out my identity or whereabouts. One also might say that I was making the most of my fragile connections with my birthplace.
So Mr. Poe, for the rest of this podcast episode, I’d like to examine some of the Other Poems in the title Tamerlane and Other Poems - and specifically look at the work Tamerlane in the next episode. And for purposes of brevity, I tried to stick to other poems that were 20 lines or less - so if you are listening, don’t think that a poem is going to go on forever.
That division is certainly amenable to me. Now must admit that those "other poems","perhaps savour too much of egotism; but they were written by one too young to have any knowledge of the world but from his own breast”. One might say that these poems present me as a solitary figure was faced with some unnamed transforming childhood event. To this end, I adopted some of the common themes of the day, including imagery of heavenly bliss and angelic beauty.
That is a reasonable evaluation. And while it can be somewhat dangerous to view a literary work largely from the standpoint of biography or the writer’s personal experiences, I can’t help but think of Miss Elmyra Roster during her wedding to Mr. Shelton when wrote that you saw her on her wedding day - not that you were there physically, but you saw her emotionally - ideas that would have inspired our first poem.
Yes, Mr. Bartley
07:43 I saw thee on thy bridal day
\
I saw thee on the bridal day;
When a burning blush came o’er thee,
Tho’ Happiness around thee lay,
The world all love before thee.
And, in thine eye, the kindling light
Of young passion free
Was all on earth, my chain’d sight
Of Loveliness might see.
That blush, I ween, was maiden shame:
As such it well may pass:
Tho’ its glow hath rais’d a fiercer flame
In the breast of him, alas!
Who saw the thee on that bridal day,
When that deep blush would come o’er thee, —
Tho’ Happiness around thee lay;
The world all Love before thee. —
Visit of the Dead 08:43
My personal favorite in Tamerlane and Other Poems is a poem called
Visit of the Dead. This same spooky poem was later published as Spirits of the Dead.
VISIT OF THE DEAD.
* * * *
Thy soul shall find itself alone —
Alone of all on earth — unknown
The cause — but none are near to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness — for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall then o’ershadow thee — be still
For the night, tho’ clear, shall frown: [page 28:]
And the stars shall look not down
From their thrones, in the dark heav’n;
With light like Hope to mortals giv’n,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy withering heart shall seem
As a burning, and a ferver [[fever]]
Which would cling to thee forever.
But ‘twill leave thee, as each star
In the morning light afar
Will fly thee — and vanish:
— But its thought thou can'st not banish.
The breath of God will be still;
And the wish [[mist or wisp]] upon the hill
By that summer breeze unbrok’n
Shall charm thee — as a token,
And a symbol which shall be
Secrecy in thee.
10:26 Evening Star
I also like a poem from Tamerlane and Other Poems by the name of Evening Star,
’Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro’ the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
’Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gaz’d awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold — too cold for me —
There pass’d, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turn’d away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heav’n at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.
11:31 A Dream
The poem A Dream follows Evening Star. It almost sounds as though you were getting ready for more complex works - such as A Dream With a Dream.
[[A Dream]]
A wilder’d being from my birth
My spirit spurn’d control,
But now, abroad on the wide earth,
Where wand’rest thou my soul?
In visions of the dark night
I have dream’d of joy departed —
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
And what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turn’d back upon the past?
That holy dream — that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheer’d me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding —
What tho’ that light, thro’ misty night
So dimly shone afar —
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day — star?
12:54 The Happiest Day
Mr, Poe - in The Happiest Day you seem to write about happiness that is somehow always elusive.
The happiest day — the happiest hour
My sear’d and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride, and power,
I feel hath flown.
Of power! said I? yes! such I ween
But they have vanish’d long alas!
The visions of my youth have been —
But let them pass.
And, pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may ev’n inherit
The venom thou hast pour’d on me —
Be still my spirit.
The happiest day — the happiest hour
Mine eyes shall see — have ever seen
The brightest glance of pride and power
I feel — have been:
But were that hope of pride and power
Now offer’d, with the pain
Ev’n then I felt — that brightest hour
I would not live again:
For on its wing was dark alloy
And as it flutter’d — fell
An essence — powerful to destroy
A soul that knew it well.
14:17 The Lake
And finally in The Lake you seem to write about such disparate subjects as youth, loneliness, delight, terror, and death.,
THE LAKE.
In youth's spring, it was my lot
To haant of the wide earth a spot
The which I could not love the less;
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound.
And the tall pines that tower’d around.
But when the night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot — as upon all,
And the wind would pass me by
In its stilly melody,
My infant spirit would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright —
But a tremulous delight,
And a feeling undefin’d,
Springing from a darken’d mind.
Death was in that poison’d wave
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his dark imagining;
Whose wild’ring thought could even make
An Eden of that dim lake.
15:44 Tamerlance as a valuable book
We will no doubt discuss in the next podcast episode, by far the longest poem in Tamerlane and Other Poems - the the poem Tamerlane itself. In its first form, Tamerlane contained four hundred and six lines. In the final revision, it contained only two hundred and thirty four lines. Now Mr. Poe, when was the final revision published?
That would be 1845 - a few years before my earthly demise.
Today, it is believed only 12 copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems still exist. There are certainly more valuable books in the world - such as the Gutenberg Bible and Shakespeare’s First Folio, but Tamerlane and Other Poems is considered the most valuable book ever written by an American for several main reasons:
1) Poe did not live long enough to write a great deal, so his works are relatively few and that much more valuable.
2) Distribution of the original Tamerlane was limited to 50 copies, so there are only a handful of copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems in existence.
3) As Poe’s first publication, Tamerlane and Other Poems has special literary significance.
Now it seems that each place that has a copy of the valuable Tamerlane and other Poems has its own story - I’d like to mention a copy one that has a connection to the Lilly Library - a few miles down the road at Indiana University. This copy was from the collection of Josiah K. Lilly, and was officially discovered in 1925.The list of prior owners of this copy is as follows:
1. Unknown, apparently in New Hampshire (sold at auction about 1919, perhaps for $11,500);
2. William F. Sullivan,- Nasha, NH;
3. Charles Eliot Goodspeed, Mr. Goodspeed was a Boston bookseller and purchased a copy of Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1926 for $20,000
4. Josiah Kirby Lilly, Jr purchased the same copy from Mr. Goodspeed on October 31, 1928 for $25,000;
5. And finally Mr. Lilly donated a copy of Tamerlane and Other Poems to Indiana University 1964.
In December, 2009, a fairly worn original copy of “Tamerlane and Other Poems” sold at Christie’s auction house in New York for a whopping $662,500. This was a record auction price for a piece of American literature.
Unfortunately, I never experienced during my earthly life, similar financial rewards. And I must admit that I was quite disappointed when Tamerlane and Other Poems was first published because it was virtually ignored and received very little critical attention of any kind.
Perhaps the American reading public was more interested in fiction that poetry.
19:36 Importance of Tammerlance and Other Poems
That is an excellent and succinct observation. I can see now that, while Tamerlane and Other Poems suffered from a lack of attention, one might say that it gave me the confidence to continue writing.
And Mr. Poe - you might be interested that the great biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn wrote about Tamerlane and Other Poems, “ "The perfection which marked Poe's great lyrics was, of course, not yet present. But the promise was there.”
And I certainly hold Dr. Quinn in the highest esteem.
And Poe Scholar Harry Lee Poe, a distant relative of Poe and a man who has agreed to be a guest on this podcast - wrote in 2008 that Tamerlane and Other Poems did not include great poetry. However, he added, "it was the trumpet blast announcing that a new poet had stepped upon the stage.”
And with those observations, permit me to take my leave.
GHOST EXIT SOUND
In the introduction to Tamerlane and Other Poems, Poe does claim that he had written the poems when he was only fourteen years old. Whether or not this is strictly true is certainly debatable - Poe was not above stretching the truth.
Now if you remember anything from this podcast, I hope that you remember that Tamerlane and Other Poems, which first sold for twelve and one-half cents, is now considered by many experts to be the most valuable book ever written by an American.
21:20 FUTURE EPISODES
Next week Celebrate Poe will take a look at some of the possible sources for the title poem Tamerlane in an episode called Where did he get That Idea? - a lot more interesting than it might sound. This podcast episode deals with subjects ranging from the English playwright Christopher Marlowe to the Richmond Theatre Fire - a terrifying event that has been called the first major disaster in American history. The ghost of Mr. Poe and I will also talk about some of the similarities and surprising differences between Poe’s Tamerlane and the REAL Tamerlane. In a future episode, I want to take a look at some of the fascinating stories behind a man who found a copy of Tamerlane and Other Poems in his attic, as well as the unsolved mystery behind a stolen copy of the book at the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia.
22:39 Sources
Sources include Tamerlane and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never Ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman, and a Census of Copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems from the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore web site.
23:10 Outro
Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe - a deep dive into the life, times, and works of America’s Shakespeare - Edgar Allan Poe.
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