Poe the Swimmer

Welcome to celebrate creativity - pisode 423 - Poe the Swimmer

I am going to be taking some time off from this podcast - I think I have had almost 30 episodes in the past month - and devote the time to just doing podcasts and doing them right - with the sound effects and some really fascinating subjects.  

As of today this podcast has had almost 23,000 downloads in nearly 100 countries and territories.  Now for today - well, this episode is largely made up of content from an earlier podcast episode of celebrate Poe - and the information makes up the most downloaded episode by far in the series.  When I started celebrate poe - now celebrate creativity - I expected maybe a handful of downloads at the most - but am amazed at how many people are interested in Edgar Alan Poe, his works, and his times - and now other areas of creativity.

Today’s podcast is about Poe’s swimming across the James River when he was just fifteen - some say sixteen - years old.  We don’t have a great deal of documentation regarding that accomplishment, but the few sentences that were written regarding Poe’s accomplishment at the time show us a physical side of the writer - and even his character - that we very often overlook.   

You know, when you do a podcast the subject stays on your mind, but you have to be careful - at least I do - that you don’t start talking about a subject in conversation that nobody else is interested in.  I know I could talk about Poe all day, but I could just see - ok, I have experienced it - people tactfully changing the subject because I am the only person who is interested in some little seemingly insignificant detail about Poe.  But I have never been with a group that is not fascinated - in some way - by Poe’s long distance swimming accomplishments.  I mean, how many people can say they have swum 6 or 7 miles without stopping - all against the tide.

Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.

Transcript

Welcome to celebrate creativity - episode 423 - Poe the Swimmer

I am going to be taking some time off from this podcast - I think I have had almost 30 episodes in the past month - and devote the time to just doing podcasts and doing them right - with the sound effects and some really fascinating subjects.  

As of today this podcast has had almost 23,000 downloads in nearly 100 countries and territories.  Now for today - well, this episode is largely made up of content from an earlier podcast episode of celebrate Poe - and the information makes up the most downloaded episode by far in the series.  When I started celebrate poe - now celebrate creativity - I expected maybe a handful of downloads at the most - but am amazed at how many people are interested in Edgar Alan Poe, his works, and his times - and now other areas of creativity.

Today’s podcast is about Poe’s swimming across the James River when he was just fifteen - some say sixteen - years old.  We don’t have a great deal of documentation regarding that accomplishment, but the few sentences that were written regarding Poe’s accomplishment at the time show us a physical side of the writer - and even his character - that we very often overlook.   

You know, when you do a podcast the subject stays on your mind, but you have to be careful - at least I do - that you don’t start talking about a subject in conversation that nobody else is interested in.  I know I could talk about Poe all day, but I could just see - ok, I have experienced it - people tactfully changing the subject because I am the only person who is interested in some little seemingly insignificant detail about Poe.  But I have never been with a group that is not fascinated - in some way - by Poe’s long distance swimming accomplishments.  I mean, how many people can say they have swum 6 or 7 miles without stopping - all against the tide.

To hopefully understand Poe’s accomplishment a little better, I thought I would talk about someone who is definitely not in the same class as Poe as a swimmer, but in all likelihood has gone through some of the same swimming dynamics - and that person is someone I am somewhat familiar with - ME.
I originally intended to discuss epilepsy as a possible - and let me emphasize POSSIBLE explanation for some of Poe’s behavior - Now Dr. John Robertson, a notable Poe scholar and neurolist, wrote an excellent 700 some page book about Poe’s possible epilepsy.  But I need to finish his book first, and will delve into that information later in this podcast.

Anyway - when I was in the eighth grade, I somehow convinced my father to take the family to Washington D.C. and see Bob Dylan in concert.  The next morning I was walking down the hall at school and had my first epileptic seizure - ever.   Then my parents sent me to the University of Virginia Hospital for a series of tests.  And the medical conclusion was “etiology unknown.”  In other words, they could not find the cause.  But until she passed away, my dear mother was convinced that Bob Dylan caused my epilepsy.  I KNOW his music certainly makes an impression - but I doubt that it is THAT powerful.  And I later was prescribed a medication that I still take that completely controls my epilepsy.  But more about that in future podcasts as appropriate.

The reason I mention this is that the prevailing medical wisdom of the time was that people with epilepsy were NEVER supposed to exert themselves. So my doctor warned me never to exert myself physically, and above all, NOT to ever, ever go swimming.  And to be honest, I didn’t really mind not having to take PE.

But as I got older, I would read books about running, and began to secretly wish that I could run too.  I made plans to keep careful records of what I did, and slowly ran the 25 feet down my driveway.  Totally out of breath, I slowly walked the 25 feet back to my house, and wrote down - ran 25 feet - will NEVER run this far again.

But I kept at it, and before I realized i, I was running a mile.  Did some local 5K races, and then the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. - over 26 miles.  I didn’t break any speed records - it is said that for your first marathon all you should care about it just finishing.

I had proven to myself that I could do some long distance running - then I got into long distance swimming.  Of course, I started with short distances in the local YMCA pool - and then entered a 2 mile race at Chris Greene Lake.  Chris Greene is located near the Ragged Mountain - in the area close to Charlottesville and the University of Virginia.  The Ragged Mountain is one of the few places in the United States that Edgar Poe uses as a specific background for one of his stories.

Of course I wasn;t thinking about it at the time, but the water where I swam was quite peaceful - and it would be hard to remember what I was thinking about when I was swimming - I certainly remember the race - it was a great experience - but the actual swimming was a very peaceful - an almost out of body experience.  Now I realize that that my constant physical motion was an example of flow.

You may have heard of a runner’s high - when the endorphins take over, the athlete might slightly hallucinate, and pain is not felt as strongly.  It is said that is a feeling that almost any long-distance swimmer feels - the repitious stroking across the water.

I got to the point where every day I would walk down to the local gym to swim.  And I am always very eager to jump in the water and swim for about 20 minutes until I feel those endorphins.  Don’t expect to do much long distance swimming - at least at first - but last year I did swim the equivalent of two miles - 224 laps on my Apple Watch - without stopping - and it was a lot harder than when I was much younger.

One other thing - I have waterproof headphones that make it much easier to time your stroke to cool music.  And with a song like Metallic “Enter Sandman” that seems to get faster and faster, you start swimming faster and faster.

I doubt that the young Poe used headphones, but I would not be surprised to imagine that he also experienced those endorphins during his swim across the James River.

Now I'd like to take a look at Edgar Allan pose aquatic accomplishment in the James River.

Now In Alexander’s Weekly Messenger in the February 12, 1840 Edition, an article was published about the death of Matthew Vipond, a long-distance swimmer, that compared his accomplishment to that of Edgar Allan Poe.

While written about a Matthew Vipond, this article is perhaps most notable because of its coverage of Edgar Allan Poe’s swim across the James.

Mathew Vipond, the celebrated swimmer, died recently at Liverpool, aged 48. In July, 1827, Mr. V. swam, on the river Mersey, from Rock Point to Runcorn, a distance of 22 miles, in 5 hours and a half — a feat probably unequalled and unapproached by any swimmer, when all the circumstances are taken into account, in ancient or modern times.

The comparative difficulty of swimming feats can only be estimated by the practical swimmer, and the writer of the paragraph above was evidently not a practical swimmer. From the place in which the feat here recorded took place and from the time in which it was performed, it is clear that the swim was with the current of the Mersey. It was thus no great thing to boast of. Even admitting it to have been swum in still water, it was, nevertheless, no very extraordinary performance. As for its being the greatest feat of the kind on record, we say at once — no; for a far more extraordinary one is within our own knowledge, and within that of almost every resident of Richmond, in Virginia. Mr. Poe, now of the Gentleman's Magazine, swam from a point in James’ River, called Ludlam's wharf, to a wharf at Warwick — a distance of seven miles and a half, in a hot June sun, and against a tide of three miles per hour. He was then but 15 years of age. The difficulty of swimming with a current is absolutely nothing; that of swimming in perfectly still water is, to a really able swimmer, but little greater than the difficulty of walking — merely requiring patience. But to swim against a strong current There can be no interval for rest by floating, as in the two other cases; and this makes all the difference. There is no properly authenticated fact on record equal to that of Mr. Poe, and at the time of its performance, this fact was conceded by almost every journal in the United States.

Now Poe did not have all the intensive training that an Olympic swimmer might experience - but I don’t think I have ever run across a more interesting overview of Poe as an athlete - especially as a long distance swimmer - than that of novelist George Thomas Clark.  Mr. Clark writes as the head track coach on the collegiate level, as well as a the author of several books dealing with history.  I found an excellent article by Mr. Clark called Poe the Athlete - couldn’t decide which parts to leave out - it is ALL infomrative - so I am going to read it in its entirety - So here are the observations of Mr. Clark.  And While Mr. Clark concentrates on Poe’s swimming, he also has some interesting comments about Poe as a runner.

May 19, 2008
I’m head track coach at a major university and have trained some of the finest young athletes in the world.  I don’t recruit anyone lacking potential to place high and score points in important meets - that I explained to members of a literary society when they presented physical data about Edgar Allan Poe.  He was a commendable athlete in a distant time, especially for one who didn’t have a training regimen, but I can’t guarantee he would’ve been robust enough to excel on my team.  The Friends of Poe still requested I train him, theoretically, and maximize his talent then tell them what he could’ve done.  I accepted this intriguing project.
Poe stood five-foot-eight and weighed about a hundred fifty pounds.  His fellows in the late 1820’s described him as “graceful, sinewy, and lithe,” and one overwhelmed lad designated him the “best, the most daring, and most enduring swimmer I ever saw in the water.”  Perhaps Poe should’ve had a swimming coach.  At age sixteen he dived off a wharf into the James River near Richmond and, escorted by several friends in a rowboat, began smooth strokes and soft kicks, easing downriver one mile, two miles, stroking for an hour now, then three miles, and four, two hours out, breathing hot now and losing his form.  Want us to pull you out?  Poe aimed a wicked eye and struck the water.  After five miles he was dizzy and disoriented and at times strayed from the boat until told to straighten his course.  I know he was in the zone where you don’t want to quit but crave the moment you can.  After three hours he staggered ashore at his destination, Warwick Bar, six miles from the wharf.  Blisters burned his arms, shoulders, back, neck, and face, and for three unpleasant nights he tried to sleep on his stomach.  Thereafter he frequently boasted that crossing the English Channel would be a casual dip.  I like athletes who’ve excelled at other sports and think they’re special.  They have to believe or they won’t survive my workouts.
I am now obliged to tell Poe in what event he shall compete.  Generally, track athletes his delicate size have to be distance runners and train about a hundred miles a week.  Given Poe’s tenacity and ability to endure pain while plowing down the James River, I believe he’s most suited for the five-thousand and ten-thousand meter events.  In short races he dashed away from schoolyard opponents but definitely could not be a sprinter today nor could he have competed with top sprinters two centuries ago.

Mr. Clark continues with ….

I know many considered Poe an excellent long jumper.  At the University of Virginia in 1826 three of his friends ran down a “slight slope” and leapt nineteen feet.  The seventeen-year old poet followed and sailed a foot beyond.  In 1837 Poe asserted he had jumped twenty feet six inches.   By 1842, in saloons and an autobiographical piece for a magazine, he boasted of having flown twenty-one feet six inches after a mere twenty-yard approach.  Aging men often get better the more distant their athletic deeds.  Poe probably prevaricated about this as he too often did regarding alcohol, literature, and money.  Only the former concerns me.  I don’t allow drinking on my track team.  Do it once, you’re suspended for a month.  After the second offense I personally pack your gear and point you out of town.
Let’s assume the young Poe could stay sober on my team.  I sense he’d then lobby to be a long jumper but be forced to defer to African American teammates sailing twenty-five feet and more.  Even with weight training enhanced by anabolic steroids – which I don’t tolerate; I’m just speaking hypothetically – Poe couldn’t jump more than twenty-three feet, even from fast synthetic runways.  It’s possible, given reasonable speed afoot, that he could be a middle distance runner, competing in the eight hundred and fifteen hundred.  Again, however, Poe’s slight frame indicates slow-twitch muscle structure suited for long distance.  I also think long daily runs would improve Poe’s moods.  With teammates he could run early mornings before school, study and write during the day, train with the team in the afternoon, and do homework and more writing at night.  I don’t know if Poe’s brain would withstand this regimen but his body could, and guided by my firm hand and loud voice he’d earn a Division I track scholarship, place in league meets (though not beyond that), and live less stressfully in early adulthood.
26:48 Comparison of Poe’s swim to that of Lord Byron
Fast forward to the publication of a story called The Doom - it is perhaps most notable because the story refers to another writer who swims across a river.  In his review of the story, Poe says, The writer seems to compare my swim with that of Lord Byron, whereas there can be no comparison between them. Any swimmer “in the falls” in my days, would have swum the Hellespont, and thought nothing of the matter. I swam from Ludlam's wharf to Warwick, (six miles,) in a hot June sun, against one of the strongest tides ever known in the river. It would have been a feat comparatively easy to swim twenty miles in still water. I would not think much of attempting to swim the British Channel from Dover to Calais

In summary, Remember that in all likelihood, Poe swam across the James River to prove himself, “- certainly an understandable reason for an active youth. Most biographers say that Poe was emulating Lord Byron's swimming across the Hellespont.  So while Poe was not making a name for himself as a great writer - at least not yet - I believe he was determined to make a local name for himself as a swimmer.

Let me end the main part of this podcast episode by saying that
While there certainly wasn’t the emphasis on adults being physically active like there is today in many areas, it would be interesting if Poe had simply been more aware of his health - living less stressfully and fully aware of the destructive effects of drugs and alcohol.
Sources

28:41 Sources for this episode include

Poe The Athlete by George Thomas Clark, “Scholar, Athlete and Artist, Edgar Allan Poe at University of Virginia” by Scott D. Peterson; Edgar A. Poe, Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance  by Kenneth A. Silverman.The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, Poe and Place by Phillip Edward Phillips, New Glimpses of Poe by James A. Harrison.

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.