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Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance
From a Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer, the most revealing, fascinating, and important biography of one of our greatest literary figures.
592 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
March 2, 2013
Poe. Ugh! Nevermore! Just kidding. Sort of. I’ll always read the great stories over and over again. They are, to my mind, essential parts of American fiction, and foundational material when considering the history of the Weird Tale. But the life of the man, after reading Kenneth Silverman’s biography, now holds for me little interest. Biographer’s can of course get their subject wrong, or even lose it by making their book a literary hit job (a method Poe would of appreciated – as long as the subject wasn’t himself). But in Silverman’s case, the tone is neutral, leaning sympathetic.
The approach is largely a Freudian one (an approach I’m not crazy about), but in Poe’s case, there’s no denying he represents a target rich environment. His actress-mother (reportedly a very good one), died when Poe was three. His actor-father (a lousy actor, but a roaring good drunk), had already abandoned the family ship – never to be seen again (weird how that fact echoes Stephen King’s childhood). Upon the mother’s death, the children were split up, with young Edgar, now a charity case, raised by the Allans of Richmond, Virginia. The step-mother is sweet enough, but the step-father, a successful businessman, is something of a cold fish, who grew colder as the years went by. Clearly the hyper sensitive Poe craved affection and stability. John Allan wasn’t too good on the affection, and as Poe grew older, Allan was dutiful only up to a point, providing Poe with something of an education at the University of Virginia. But the party life for Poe intervened, and his step-father would never provide him with enough money (according to Poe) to succeed.
What follows is a number of false starts for Poe, where he tried to get traction in life. Meanwhile the relationship with his step-father kept deteriorating. Poe’s boozing, up to this point, is largely speculation. But around page 108, it’s a reality. Poe tries West Point, does fairly well, but again runs up the tabs, while his step-father keeps him on a short leash. Poe deliberately flunks out, and the final break with Allan occurs.
We are now getting to the serious writing part of Poe’s life. He moves to Baltimore (home of the Poes), marries his 13 year old(!!!) first cousin (the “13” part of that was shocking (great balls of fire!) even back then), and starts writing in earnest. This was a time of numerous magazines in America. Poe’s stories and reviews peppered a number of them as he moved from one editorship job to another, but the big money never came. Along the way he made a LOT of enemies. Poe was a savage critic, ripping other writers and poets over such things as bad grammar and plagiarism. Charges, Silverman points out, that could also be leveled at Poe. With Poe there is always a whole lot of projecting going on. In addition, and I found this odd, Poe is always arguing for art and beauty in literature, and yet you have him cranking out these horrific and grotesque tales.
At about the mid way point in Silverman’s book, Poe has written most of his major stories. His wife, Virginia, who he clearly loved, is dying from tuberculosis, and Poe is rapidly disintegrating as both person and literary force. Oh, despite everything he’s done to others, he’s still respected as a writer, but he’s a writer suffering from writer’s block. Throughout this period the Poe family (Edgar, Virginia, and Aunt “Muddy”) are living on the edge of poverty. Silverman lingers over this stretch of Poe’s life (the last four years) for too long. Upon Virginia’s death, the reader is given detailed biographical descriptions of Virginia’s potential replacements, which kind of throws sand into the momentum of the book. And compounding this search is Poe’s never ending literary feuds, his boozing, his scrambling for money. It’s a cycle that keeps repeating itself. He’s a sad figure, true, and horribly unlucky, but not a nice one. On the subject of Poe’s alcoholism, Silverman tries to stick to the facts, which are murky at best. His Aunt “Muddy” maintained that the problem with Poe was that he couldn’t handle much alcohol. I think anyone looking at the pictures of Poe throughout his life can see that he could handle quite a bit. The physical decline is that apparent. His “mysterious” death, in the end, doesn’t seem all that mysterious.
The approach is largely a Freudian one (an approach I’m not crazy about), but in Poe’s case, there’s no denying he represents a target rich environment. His actress-mother (reportedly a very good one), died when Poe was three. His actor-father (a lousy actor, but a roaring good drunk), had already abandoned the family ship – never to be seen again (weird how that fact echoes Stephen King’s childhood). Upon the mother’s death, the children were split up, with young Edgar, now a charity case, raised by the Allans of Richmond, Virginia. The step-mother is sweet enough, but the step-father, a successful businessman, is something of a cold fish, who grew colder as the years went by. Clearly the hyper sensitive Poe craved affection and stability. John Allan wasn’t too good on the affection, and as Poe grew older, Allan was dutiful only up to a point, providing Poe with something of an education at the University of Virginia. But the party life for Poe intervened, and his step-father would never provide him with enough money (according to Poe) to succeed.
What follows is a number of false starts for Poe, where he tried to get traction in life. Meanwhile the relationship with his step-father kept deteriorating. Poe’s boozing, up to this point, is largely speculation. But around page 108, it’s a reality. Poe tries West Point, does fairly well, but again runs up the tabs, while his step-father keeps him on a short leash. Poe deliberately flunks out, and the final break with Allan occurs.
We are now getting to the serious writing part of Poe’s life. He moves to Baltimore (home of the Poes), marries his 13 year old(!!!) first cousin (the “13” part of that was shocking (great balls of fire!) even back then), and starts writing in earnest. This was a time of numerous magazines in America. Poe’s stories and reviews peppered a number of them as he moved from one editorship job to another, but the big money never came. Along the way he made a LOT of enemies. Poe was a savage critic, ripping other writers and poets over such things as bad grammar and plagiarism. Charges, Silverman points out, that could also be leveled at Poe. With Poe there is always a whole lot of projecting going on. In addition, and I found this odd, Poe is always arguing for art and beauty in literature, and yet you have him cranking out these horrific and grotesque tales.
At about the mid way point in Silverman’s book, Poe has written most of his major stories. His wife, Virginia, who he clearly loved, is dying from tuberculosis, and Poe is rapidly disintegrating as both person and literary force. Oh, despite everything he’s done to others, he’s still respected as a writer, but he’s a writer suffering from writer’s block. Throughout this period the Poe family (Edgar, Virginia, and Aunt “Muddy”) are living on the edge of poverty. Silverman lingers over this stretch of Poe’s life (the last four years) for too long. Upon Virginia’s death, the reader is given detailed biographical descriptions of Virginia’s potential replacements, which kind of throws sand into the momentum of the book. And compounding this search is Poe’s never ending literary feuds, his boozing, his scrambling for money. It’s a cycle that keeps repeating itself. He’s a sad figure, true, and horribly unlucky, but not a nice one. On the subject of Poe’s alcoholism, Silverman tries to stick to the facts, which are murky at best. His Aunt “Muddy” maintained that the problem with Poe was that he couldn’t handle much alcohol. I think anyone looking at the pictures of Poe throughout his life can see that he could handle quite a bit. The physical decline is that apparent. His “mysterious” death, in the end, doesn’t seem all that mysterious.
March 28, 2011
Perhaps nothing better illustrates the lamentable state of Poe scholarship than the fact that this shallow, dismal book is the leading modern biography of the man. Silverman's sole method of chronicling Poe's life and personality is a sort of crude, outmoded pop psychology that merely serves to trivialize his subject, and he seems incapable of seeing Poe's writings--among the most esoteric, complex, and impersonal works in our literature--as anything but one-dimensional autobiography.
There are more objective difficulties with this book. Silverman admits (mostly in his horribly muddled footnotes) that many of his sources--Susan Talley Weiss and Mary Starr in particular--are highly unreliable. However, in the text of the book, he borrows extensively from this same demonstrably untrustworthy or downright fraudulent testimony as if it was legitimate. He also places utterly inexplicable reliance on reminiscences (written fifty years after the fact) from the likes of Thomas Dunn English--a particularly vicious Poe enemy whom a New York courthouse officially ruled to be a libeler! There are also many undeniable factual errors in the book--particularly in those strange end notes.
While this biography has some interesting background information on many of the figures in Poe's life, such as Rufus Griswold and Sarah Helen Whitman, the net effect is to cause Poe himself--a figure Silverman clearly never liked or even comprehended--to often fade into the background of his own biography. The reader winds up learning more about Nathaniel P. Willis than this book's ostensible subject, and of all the women in Poe's life, the one you hear least about is the one he was married to for over a decade. Virginia Clemm Poe is scarcely depicted at all, other than as a silent, vapid figure slowly dying in the background, and most of the information Silverman presents about her comes courtesy of Susan Weiss, arguably the biggest liar in all of Poe's history--a proven prolific fabulist who never even met Poe's wife. Silverman does Virginia a terrible injustice.
All in all, the best that can be said about "Remembrance" is that many books about Poe are far worse--a truly frightening thought.
There are more objective difficulties with this book. Silverman admits (mostly in his horribly muddled footnotes) that many of his sources--Susan Talley Weiss and Mary Starr in particular--are highly unreliable. However, in the text of the book, he borrows extensively from this same demonstrably untrustworthy or downright fraudulent testimony as if it was legitimate. He also places utterly inexplicable reliance on reminiscences (written fifty years after the fact) from the likes of Thomas Dunn English--a particularly vicious Poe enemy whom a New York courthouse officially ruled to be a libeler! There are also many undeniable factual errors in the book--particularly in those strange end notes.
While this biography has some interesting background information on many of the figures in Poe's life, such as Rufus Griswold and Sarah Helen Whitman, the net effect is to cause Poe himself--a figure Silverman clearly never liked or even comprehended--to often fade into the background of his own biography. The reader winds up learning more about Nathaniel P. Willis than this book's ostensible subject, and of all the women in Poe's life, the one you hear least about is the one he was married to for over a decade. Virginia Clemm Poe is scarcely depicted at all, other than as a silent, vapid figure slowly dying in the background, and most of the information Silverman presents about her comes courtesy of Susan Weiss, arguably the biggest liar in all of Poe's history--a proven prolific fabulist who never even met Poe's wife. Silverman does Virginia a terrible injustice.
All in all, the best that can be said about "Remembrance" is that many books about Poe are far worse--a truly frightening thought.
April 20, 2020
“My whole nature utterly revolts at the idea that there is any Being in the universe superior to myself”-Edgar Allan Poe
One of the harder things for me to do, for anyone perhaps to do in the current age of cancel culture, is to separate an artist’s work from who they are as a human being. History unfortunately is littered with brilliant minds who possessed less than brilliant character. Richard Wagner was a bullying, avowed anti-semite who made stunning music (not everyone I accept, agrees on this point). Dylan Thomas was a man who wrote beautiful, heart stirring poems, and then went home and beat his wife. Martin Heidegger was a brilliant philosopher and mathematician who in his second role was also an avid Nazi.
I don’t mean to suggest here that Edgar Allan Poe was a horrible human being on the scale of these men. He was however an extraordinarily talented writer while being a less than stellar person to have in your life.
Poe’s flaws as a writer were few but sadly we cannot say the same about his character.
He was born into a family of stage actors but would lose both parents in his youth, eventually becoming the ward of John and Fanny Allan. To say the his relationship with them, particularly John, was troubled is an understatement. Most of the problems of Poe’s early years revolved around being unable to commit to anything in particular as well as a lack of money. From university, to West Point, university, and West Point again, Allan grew increasingly frustrated with Poe and his demands for more money that was not seemingly ever enough.
The manner in which Poe asks for money from Allan in his correspondence home is particularly striking in that aside form the lies they contained, the letters tone alternates from cajoling to resignation, threatening to self pitying. In almost every one Poe never takes responsibility for his own actions and blames Allan for not sending enough money, while asking for more. These letters are breathtaking in their audacity as they are infuriating in their whining. To show but a few examples:
"Pecuniary assistance I do not desire, unless of your own free &unbiassed choice. If you determine to abandon me , neglected, I will be doubly ambitious, & the world shall hear of the son whom you have thought unworthy of your notice."
“ ‘I am in the greatest necessity, not having tasted food since Yesterday morning. I have no where to sleep at night but roam about the Streets. I am nearly exhausted. I beseech you I have not one cent in the world to provide any food.’ John Allan turned over what Edgar sent and wrote on the backside,’Pretty Letter.’ "
Sadly these would be the hallmark of Poe as an adult as well. He would later become the assistant editor of various literary magazines in which he would also become a literary critic. Here we see Poe go from disaffected adolescent malcontent to full on jerk. Ever supremely confident in his intellect and superiority to other writers, and jealous of their celebrity while perceiving his talents to have gone unnoticed, Poe began a literary slash and burn campaign against pretty much every prominent writer of the day. From Ralph Waldo Emerson to savage attacks on Henry Wandsworth Longfellow who he would accuse of plagiarism despite ample evidence that this was a crime Poe in particular was guilty of, Poe was intensely disliked by most of those his pen attacked. For one example of Poe’s attacks on Longfellow in particular:
“Whether considered to be entirely or only largely by Poe, the review is probably the crudest he ever wrote. Incredibly, he commented briefly on each poem in each of Longfellow's four volumes, intermittently praising but generally ripping one after another as ‘exceedingly feeble’, ‘singularly silly’, ‘utterly worthless’, ‘mere prose’ ‘mere common place’, ‘scarcely worth the page it occupies’, ‘nothing’, ‘pure inanity’, ‘We never saw a more sickening thing in a book’. He also lengthened the list of those plagiarized by ‘the GREAT MOGUL of the Imitators’, which now included Shakespeare, Pope, Coleridge, and others, accompanying each exposure of Longfellow's larceny with an evaluation of its degree: ‘one of the most palpable plagiarisms ever perpetrated’, ‘A more palpable plagiarism was never committed’, ‘altogether contemptible imitation.’ "
To his eternal credit, Longfellow refused to be baited by Poe, simply responding:
“Life is too precious to be wasted in street brawls”
Amen to that Henry.
Poe would also malign the appearances of various literary figures in his reviews, for no other reason one can imagine than just pure spite. Take for example his description of rival editor Gaylord Clark:
“…having no determinateness, no distinctiveness, no saliency of point. An apple, in fact, or a pumpkin, has more angles. . . . he is noticeable for nothing in the world except for the markedness by which he is noticeable for nothing."
Describing all this nastiness is before we even discuss Poe’s relationships with women.
Women is perhaps not exactly the fitting term however to describe his first marriage to Virginia Clemm, 13 years old at the time. Without getting too into the social mores weeds of mid 19th century America and relationships with children, marrying a 13 year old child was considered by many to be inappropriate even then. After her death at 24 years of age, Poe would within months begin pursuing four different women. Each one of wealthy means and judging by his letters, none of whom he was particularly interested in. They were a means to an end for a man who had lived his life in an abject poverty, that he was unable to ever really pull himself out of.
His heavy drinking when he would become violent and even more abusive than normal certainly didn’t help either.
I’m sure there are those who would even today make excuses for Poe. Yes he had a horrible childhood. Yes, his talents were never fully recognized during his time, although to be fair he did receive a fair amount of fame and acclaim for The Raven in particular, even if that never materialized into monetary gain.
I find it difficult to like Poe though. He was a petty, spiteful, mean spirited and arrogant man who constantly found fault in others and yet was unable to ever find any in himself. Judging by the surviving letters of those who knew him and were savaged by him, he must have been an insufferable person to be around.
He was however a great poet and master of the short story. Nobody can ever really take that away from him I suppose. It doesn’t mean however that if I possessed a time machine, I would spend even one minute getting to know him.
One of the harder things for me to do, for anyone perhaps to do in the current age of cancel culture, is to separate an artist’s work from who they are as a human being. History unfortunately is littered with brilliant minds who possessed less than brilliant character. Richard Wagner was a bullying, avowed anti-semite who made stunning music (not everyone I accept, agrees on this point). Dylan Thomas was a man who wrote beautiful, heart stirring poems, and then went home and beat his wife. Martin Heidegger was a brilliant philosopher and mathematician who in his second role was also an avid Nazi.
I don’t mean to suggest here that Edgar Allan Poe was a horrible human being on the scale of these men. He was however an extraordinarily talented writer while being a less than stellar person to have in your life.
Poe’s flaws as a writer were few but sadly we cannot say the same about his character.
He was born into a family of stage actors but would lose both parents in his youth, eventually becoming the ward of John and Fanny Allan. To say the his relationship with them, particularly John, was troubled is an understatement. Most of the problems of Poe’s early years revolved around being unable to commit to anything in particular as well as a lack of money. From university, to West Point, university, and West Point again, Allan grew increasingly frustrated with Poe and his demands for more money that was not seemingly ever enough.
The manner in which Poe asks for money from Allan in his correspondence home is particularly striking in that aside form the lies they contained, the letters tone alternates from cajoling to resignation, threatening to self pitying. In almost every one Poe never takes responsibility for his own actions and blames Allan for not sending enough money, while asking for more. These letters are breathtaking in their audacity as they are infuriating in their whining. To show but a few examples:
"Pecuniary assistance I do not desire, unless of your own free &unbiassed choice. If you determine to abandon me , neglected, I will be doubly ambitious, & the world shall hear of the son whom you have thought unworthy of your notice."
“ ‘I am in the greatest necessity, not having tasted food since Yesterday morning. I have no where to sleep at night but roam about the Streets. I am nearly exhausted. I beseech you I have not one cent in the world to provide any food.’ John Allan turned over what Edgar sent and wrote on the backside,’Pretty Letter.’ "
Sadly these would be the hallmark of Poe as an adult as well. He would later become the assistant editor of various literary magazines in which he would also become a literary critic. Here we see Poe go from disaffected adolescent malcontent to full on jerk. Ever supremely confident in his intellect and superiority to other writers, and jealous of their celebrity while perceiving his talents to have gone unnoticed, Poe began a literary slash and burn campaign against pretty much every prominent writer of the day. From Ralph Waldo Emerson to savage attacks on Henry Wandsworth Longfellow who he would accuse of plagiarism despite ample evidence that this was a crime Poe in particular was guilty of, Poe was intensely disliked by most of those his pen attacked. For one example of Poe’s attacks on Longfellow in particular:
“Whether considered to be entirely or only largely by Poe, the review is probably the crudest he ever wrote. Incredibly, he commented briefly on each poem in each of Longfellow's four volumes, intermittently praising but generally ripping one after another as ‘exceedingly feeble’, ‘singularly silly’, ‘utterly worthless’, ‘mere prose’ ‘mere common place’, ‘scarcely worth the page it occupies’, ‘nothing’, ‘pure inanity’, ‘We never saw a more sickening thing in a book’. He also lengthened the list of those plagiarized by ‘the GREAT MOGUL of the Imitators’, which now included Shakespeare, Pope, Coleridge, and others, accompanying each exposure of Longfellow's larceny with an evaluation of its degree: ‘one of the most palpable plagiarisms ever perpetrated’, ‘A more palpable plagiarism was never committed’, ‘altogether contemptible imitation.’ "
To his eternal credit, Longfellow refused to be baited by Poe, simply responding:
“Life is too precious to be wasted in street brawls”
Amen to that Henry.
Poe would also malign the appearances of various literary figures in his reviews, for no other reason one can imagine than just pure spite. Take for example his description of rival editor Gaylord Clark:
“…having no determinateness, no distinctiveness, no saliency of point. An apple, in fact, or a pumpkin, has more angles. . . . he is noticeable for nothing in the world except for the markedness by which he is noticeable for nothing."
Describing all this nastiness is before we even discuss Poe’s relationships with women.
Women is perhaps not exactly the fitting term however to describe his first marriage to Virginia Clemm, 13 years old at the time. Without getting too into the social mores weeds of mid 19th century America and relationships with children, marrying a 13 year old child was considered by many to be inappropriate even then. After her death at 24 years of age, Poe would within months begin pursuing four different women. Each one of wealthy means and judging by his letters, none of whom he was particularly interested in. They were a means to an end for a man who had lived his life in an abject poverty, that he was unable to ever really pull himself out of.
His heavy drinking when he would become violent and even more abusive than normal certainly didn’t help either.
I’m sure there are those who would even today make excuses for Poe. Yes he had a horrible childhood. Yes, his talents were never fully recognized during his time, although to be fair he did receive a fair amount of fame and acclaim for The Raven in particular, even if that never materialized into monetary gain.
I find it difficult to like Poe though. He was a petty, spiteful, mean spirited and arrogant man who constantly found fault in others and yet was unable to ever find any in himself. Judging by the surviving letters of those who knew him and were savaged by him, he must have been an insufferable person to be around.
He was however a great poet and master of the short story. Nobody can ever really take that away from him I suppose. It doesn’t mean however that if I possessed a time machine, I would spend even one minute getting to know him.
March 5, 2021
I'm not sure if this book was a bit difficult to go through because of the way it is written or because biographies in general do not reel you in as a work of fiction would.
Otherwise, it is pretty comprehensive as well as speculative at times, and the only thing that really irked me was the author's insistence on pointing out that many of Poe's titles contained letters which could have spelled 'Allan'. Maybe a, l and n are just really common letters in the English language?
But overall I enjoyed it and it really gave me a new perspective on Edgar Allan Poe - the tormented and flawed man behind the stunning and wonderful works of literature which will continue to awe and inspire.
Otherwise, it is pretty comprehensive as well as speculative at times, and the only thing that really irked me was the author's insistence on pointing out that many of Poe's titles contained letters which could have spelled 'Allan'. Maybe a, l and n are just really common letters in the English language?
But overall I enjoyed it and it really gave me a new perspective on Edgar Allan Poe - the tormented and flawed man behind the stunning and wonderful works of literature which will continue to awe and inspire.
January 9, 2017
Wow, this was just depressing; and I'm not talking about Edgar Allan Poe's life. If this book had actually been able to capture the despair, beauty, romanticism, and eeriness of Poe's life and career this book would have been depressing for a whole other reason, and would also have a 5 star rating from me.
Instead, this book gives me boring, insipid facts about Poe's adoptive parents' trading industry, speaks very little of Poe's wife, who was probably one of the biggest idols in his life and served as a source of inspiration for his work, and worst of all, for a biography titled "Mournful and Never-Ending Rememberance', Poe is merely a background character!
This book is well researched and you can see that Silverman put as much effort as he could into a Poe biography, yet part of me also thinks that Silverman doesn't know what connects a reader to a character, or in this case, a person who is one of the most prolific and inventive authors in American literature. This book is absent when it comes to talking about Poe's inspirations, creativity, and inventiveness and introduction of mystery, noir, science fiction, and psychological horror to America. This is part of the reason why I picked up this damned book in the first place, yet my curiosity wasn't fulfilled, nor did it bring more questions.
Well, it actually did bring one question to mind repeatedly while I was reading this:
"How many pages left until it ends?"
Instead, this book gives me boring, insipid facts about Poe's adoptive parents' trading industry, speaks very little of Poe's wife, who was probably one of the biggest idols in his life and served as a source of inspiration for his work, and worst of all, for a biography titled "Mournful and Never-Ending Rememberance', Poe is merely a background character!
This book is well researched and you can see that Silverman put as much effort as he could into a Poe biography, yet part of me also thinks that Silverman doesn't know what connects a reader to a character, or in this case, a person who is one of the most prolific and inventive authors in American literature. This book is absent when it comes to talking about Poe's inspirations, creativity, and inventiveness and introduction of mystery, noir, science fiction, and psychological horror to America. This is part of the reason why I picked up this damned book in the first place, yet my curiosity wasn't fulfilled, nor did it bring more questions.
Well, it actually did bring one question to mind repeatedly while I was reading this:
"How many pages left until it ends?"
June 19, 2025
A detailed look at Poe's life, one not afraid to get lost in the minutiae and the less savory aspects of its subject. Poe was messy as hell.
June 12, 2013
Edgar Allan Poe led a shambling, messy life filled with emotional breakdowns, strange interpersonal relationships, appalling poverty, and a predeliction for the bottle which probably ultimately proved fatal. Kenneth Silverman is the author of the Pulitizer-Prize winning book, "The Life and Times of Cotton Mather", a biography of perhaps the only New England Puritan whose name is familiar to most Americans. For lovers of history and biography, Poe and Silverman are a marriage made in heaven. The research that went into this book, while apparent, isn't smothering, but rather deftly weaves a complicated life story and puts it in the context of the times (1809-1849)so that the reader comes to know not only Poe the man, but Poe the discarded orphan, the arrogant West Point cadet, the husband, the journalist, the poet, the dream weaver, the drunkard, and, ultimately, the tortured soul dealing with addiction, mental illness and financial ruin in a time when there were no social services - no safety nets - for people in extremis. What a life. What a book.
July 21, 2015
Talk about a well-written biography.... before reading this I had the standard basic idea of what Poe was like: moody, goth-y, wrote a few good poems & stories, obsessed with death. Now that I've finished the book I feel that I have this deep sense of empathy and sympathy for him, even while realizing what an utterly self-defeating screw-up he often was. (Or perhaps it's *because* I now realize this.) Ultimately I have what seems to be a greater sense of his humanity. I get that this feeling of connection is all at the mercy of the biographer - Kenneth Silverman seems to have done a vast amount of research, and handles the many facets of Poe's character with a deft & gentle hand. I don't know if I have a greater appreciation for Poe's writing, but he feels like a real person to me now, and for that I'm grateful.
Read
April 28, 2020This was another remarkable read, one regarding the life of an Edgar Allan Poe. A man orphaned in infancy, raised in a straitlaced family and then abandoning its comforts he devoted the majority of his life to literature (a disreputable career in his foster father's eyes). Too, he will perhaps be most remembered as one of the most death haunted writers in a death haunted time in my country's history, spending his life crafting poems and stories on the very edge of life and death. (Indeed, an early poem he created in his life, "Al Aaraf," gave new life to the borderland between heaven and hell.) Romantically and sexually conflicted and spending most of his years lashing out at better known and more financially secure writers, he died a long, slow death after his wife Virginia passed away (a slow suicide, as his translator Charles Baudelaire might put it, Baudelaire being himself being no stranger to the troubles of the mind and heart), but his work remains. A horror story here. A mystery well told there. A poem over there. Yes, we will long cherish the memory of dear Mr. Poe. That is for sure.
February 4, 2019
Well researched & written.
August 19, 2022
Extremely well written, researched, and enjoyable to read. I learned so much I didn't previously know -- good, bad, dark, and strange -- about this iconic American poet and fiction writer, whose mysterious death in my new hometown of Baltimore is straight out of a Poe short story.
I highly recommend Silverman's insightful bio to Poe pros and the Poe-curious, alike!
Kirk Wolcott
Author of the international thriller A Simple Game
& short story "Our Way of Life" (www.kirkwolcott.com)
I highly recommend Silverman's insightful bio to Poe pros and the Poe-curious, alike!
Kirk Wolcott
Author of the international thriller A Simple Game
& short story "Our Way of Life" (www.kirkwolcott.com)
May 5, 2009
A solid biography of a sad, often pathetic, literary life. I was only peripherally familiar with some of Poe's story and, like many readers, had been suckered by some of the stories that had been maliciously spread as fact over the last 200 years (i.e. Poe's expulsion from West Point, his drug use) -- most of which, as it turns out, were completely false and part of a concerted effort by a rival to slur his reputation.
Silverman cuts through the gauze of slanderous or puffed biographies, missing or burned letters, and lost newspaper articles and reviews to paint a warts-and-all portrait of Poe, who comes across as a sort of pathetic, unappreciated scoundrel of a genius. Poe feuded with magazine editors, challenged rivals to fist fights, wrote sock puppet reviews of his own work, accused fellow writers of plagiarism (even as he liberally borrowed from others himself), wooed multiple women at once -- and yet, his fiction and poetry are so clearly brilliant that you can't help loving the poet, even as you wish he would pull himself together. You may not come away from Silverman's book liking Poe as a person, but you'll definitely appreciate his commitment to his craft.
My only real complaint lies with Silverman's over-reading of Poe's work in search of what he is convinced are deep-seated mom and dad issues. Any time Poe creates a character whose name has two Ls and an A in it, Silverman is convinced Poe is taking a slap at his foster fother, John ALLan. To Silverman, every dying woman represents Poe's mother, and any remotely heroic character calls up Poe's brother, William Henry Leonard Poe. It can get to be a bit much, and by the time Silverman starts in on his analysis of the 1847 "Ulalume," you may find yourself groaning and thumbing for the end of the chapter.
Still, Silverman's biography brings much-needed clear-eyed scholarship to Poe's story, making Poe the most memorable character in his own rocky life story. Highly recommended.
Silverman cuts through the gauze of slanderous or puffed biographies, missing or burned letters, and lost newspaper articles and reviews to paint a warts-and-all portrait of Poe, who comes across as a sort of pathetic, unappreciated scoundrel of a genius. Poe feuded with magazine editors, challenged rivals to fist fights, wrote sock puppet reviews of his own work, accused fellow writers of plagiarism (even as he liberally borrowed from others himself), wooed multiple women at once -- and yet, his fiction and poetry are so clearly brilliant that you can't help loving the poet, even as you wish he would pull himself together. You may not come away from Silverman's book liking Poe as a person, but you'll definitely appreciate his commitment to his craft.
My only real complaint lies with Silverman's over-reading of Poe's work in search of what he is convinced are deep-seated mom and dad issues. Any time Poe creates a character whose name has two Ls and an A in it, Silverman is convinced Poe is taking a slap at his foster fother, John ALLan. To Silverman, every dying woman represents Poe's mother, and any remotely heroic character calls up Poe's brother, William Henry Leonard Poe. It can get to be a bit much, and by the time Silverman starts in on his analysis of the 1847 "Ulalume," you may find yourself groaning and thumbing for the end of the chapter.
Still, Silverman's biography brings much-needed clear-eyed scholarship to Poe's story, making Poe the most memorable character in his own rocky life story. Highly recommended.
October 6, 2025
Like last year, I have set myself a goal of reading - and reviewing - 100 books. Unlike last year, I seem to be on target and likely to hit my goal. If cancelation, depression and shut-insion(?) have a silver lining, it is time for reading.
An advantage of this volume is that I get to branch out - as with today's review, a biography of iconic horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. I have only read a handful of biographies in my life, most over the past few years of voracious reading.
Author Kenneth Silverman has won a Pulitzer for biography, and has a lengthy career as an academic and author. Clearly, he has the chops for the task, and an obvious understanding of poetry and literary technique, which he uses to colour, rather than complicate, his analysis.
Academic rigour is also on display, with roughly 100 pages of notes, appendices and index. Well-curated images provide faces for some of the people in Poe's life, with several iconic images of the man himself, from an era when such images were relatively rare.
And yet I gave this three stars?
Call that a reflection on your reviewer. It has become obvious to me that the key for enjoying biography is to find the right subject, and while I love Poe's horror output, and even enjoy some of his poetry, Silverman's book reveals the man himself to be a miserable jerk.
Prone to overstating his accomplishments from a young age, by the time Poe is a young adult he seems fully committed to alienating those around him, including his adoptive father John Allan.
Allan looms large over Poe's life, and while he may have been a demanding or unkind father at times, the disdain Poe feels for him feels wildly disproportional. Allan was a successful businessman, who gained a fortune, lost it, and regained a new one, along with a new marriage following the passing of Poe's step mother.
Edgar Allan went by Edgar A most of his life, clearly reflecting his feelings towards Allan. Poe's willingness to stand up to the perceived slights of others could be commendable, but his willingness to beg and borrow from them afterwards, while maintaining seemingly endless campaigns of self-serving rationalization and disingenuity, is much less appealing.
Not that Poe had an easy life. Abandoned young by his actor father, his loving mother, also an actor, died in her 20s leaving Poe and his siblings orphaned, and separated, as young children. The Allen's traveled a lot due to John's business interests, which also kept Poe's father too busy to be close with his son.
Allan had promised to care for Poe's education, and Poe's financial difficulties while at university drove the first painful wedge between father and son. Allan could be frugal, but these difficulties do seem to be a result of Poe spending too much money on gambling.
That said, Poe was never formally adopted by Allan, a reality that further complicated his feelings for the man.
Conflict over his university expenses initiate Poe's peripatetic life, who as a young adult had experiences in the army, at West Point, and living in various cities in both the southern and the northeastern United States, pursuing his dreams of writing.
Poorly-paid magazine work is a hallmark of his first decade of adult life, complicated by a marriage to his then thirteen year-old cousin Virginia. This was controversial even for the era, but Poe fortunately seems to have genuinely cared for Virginia and her mother.
Tragedy followed Poe like a dark cloud. While some of his wounds were self-inflicted, he did lose his first family, his adopted family, and ultimately, Virginia, who died age 24 of tuberculosis, an illness she battled for years. Poe's worries about her health are the most humanizing details we get here.
The strength of Silverman's book is in his ability to connect these tragedies and losses with Poe's work. Even a reader with a passing familiarity with Poe will recognize his obsession with death, love interrupted, and the afterlife.
I am not a completist, but I have read plenty of Poe, and found my appreciation for many of these texts improved reading Silverman. Alas, this may have dampened my appreciation of personal fave "The Cask of Amontillado", simply because of how tiresome reading about Poe's vindictiveness becomes.
"Cask" is a revenge tale, (the ultimate revenge tale?) and I preferred it before I connected it to Poe's petty self-destructiveness.
But I will re-read plenty of other classic stories and poems - "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Raven", etc - due to the interesting commentary and analysis Silverman provides.
It took me five days to read this, a day or two more than normal for a book this length, and that brings me back to my problems with biography as a genre.
There is just too much detail. Poe went here, spoke to so and so, asked for such and such, went on an alcoholic bender when disappointed, rinse and repeat.
In our post-truth, anti-knowledge era, I'm not sure I want less academic rigour, or more impressionistic biographies.
But I sure could have used less of Poe's relentless, unkind hustle.
Despite my disappointment at finding a literary hero so narcissistic and self-serving, the man's literary legacy is unimpeachable. While he achieved much of his early notoriety as a literary critic (revealing his wit and insight alongside his malicious vindictiveness), and while he viewed his poetry perhaps most favourably of all his work, it is his mastery of the short story that stands the test of time.
To my mind, Poe is second only to Lovecraft in the horror pantheon, with dozens of stories in the genre, including at least half a dozen stone cold classics. As if that wasn't enough, he appears to have invented the detective story, and wrote another half dozen or so of the most famous poems to come out of the United States.
This flawed, brilliant man died young, age forty, impoverished, famed for his writing, but unaware that he had achieved the iconic status he sought so furiously, and futilely, in life.
The sadness and tragedy of Poe's life render him an ideal proponent of gothic, ghostly horror, and to this day the depth of his writing, characterization and philosophy of loss provide genre stories with far more depth than they normally carry.
I just wish this biography had skimped on some of the soap-operatic details of the daily grind of the man's life.
Recommended for fans of Poe who can process hundreds of names, places, arguments, slights (real and imagined), literary magazines, etc., etc.
Highly recommended for academics, or fans of the above sort of bibliographic detail.
On the fence? Just go read "The Black Cat" or "The Fall of the House of Usher" or "Cask", or a poem such as "The Raven". Then you can make up your own mind.
An advantage of this volume is that I get to branch out - as with today's review, a biography of iconic horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. I have only read a handful of biographies in my life, most over the past few years of voracious reading.
Author Kenneth Silverman has won a Pulitzer for biography, and has a lengthy career as an academic and author. Clearly, he has the chops for the task, and an obvious understanding of poetry and literary technique, which he uses to colour, rather than complicate, his analysis.
Academic rigour is also on display, with roughly 100 pages of notes, appendices and index. Well-curated images provide faces for some of the people in Poe's life, with several iconic images of the man himself, from an era when such images were relatively rare.
And yet I gave this three stars?
Call that a reflection on your reviewer. It has become obvious to me that the key for enjoying biography is to find the right subject, and while I love Poe's horror output, and even enjoy some of his poetry, Silverman's book reveals the man himself to be a miserable jerk.
Prone to overstating his accomplishments from a young age, by the time Poe is a young adult he seems fully committed to alienating those around him, including his adoptive father John Allan.
Allan looms large over Poe's life, and while he may have been a demanding or unkind father at times, the disdain Poe feels for him feels wildly disproportional. Allan was a successful businessman, who gained a fortune, lost it, and regained a new one, along with a new marriage following the passing of Poe's step mother.
Edgar Allan went by Edgar A most of his life, clearly reflecting his feelings towards Allan. Poe's willingness to stand up to the perceived slights of others could be commendable, but his willingness to beg and borrow from them afterwards, while maintaining seemingly endless campaigns of self-serving rationalization and disingenuity, is much less appealing.
Not that Poe had an easy life. Abandoned young by his actor father, his loving mother, also an actor, died in her 20s leaving Poe and his siblings orphaned, and separated, as young children. The Allen's traveled a lot due to John's business interests, which also kept Poe's father too busy to be close with his son.
Allan had promised to care for Poe's education, and Poe's financial difficulties while at university drove the first painful wedge between father and son. Allan could be frugal, but these difficulties do seem to be a result of Poe spending too much money on gambling.
That said, Poe was never formally adopted by Allan, a reality that further complicated his feelings for the man.
Conflict over his university expenses initiate Poe's peripatetic life, who as a young adult had experiences in the army, at West Point, and living in various cities in both the southern and the northeastern United States, pursuing his dreams of writing.
Poorly-paid magazine work is a hallmark of his first decade of adult life, complicated by a marriage to his then thirteen year-old cousin Virginia. This was controversial even for the era, but Poe fortunately seems to have genuinely cared for Virginia and her mother.
Tragedy followed Poe like a dark cloud. While some of his wounds were self-inflicted, he did lose his first family, his adopted family, and ultimately, Virginia, who died age 24 of tuberculosis, an illness she battled for years. Poe's worries about her health are the most humanizing details we get here.
The strength of Silverman's book is in his ability to connect these tragedies and losses with Poe's work. Even a reader with a passing familiarity with Poe will recognize his obsession with death, love interrupted, and the afterlife.
I am not a completist, but I have read plenty of Poe, and found my appreciation for many of these texts improved reading Silverman. Alas, this may have dampened my appreciation of personal fave "The Cask of Amontillado", simply because of how tiresome reading about Poe's vindictiveness becomes.
"Cask" is a revenge tale, (the ultimate revenge tale?) and I preferred it before I connected it to Poe's petty self-destructiveness.
But I will re-read plenty of other classic stories and poems - "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Raven", etc - due to the interesting commentary and analysis Silverman provides.
It took me five days to read this, a day or two more than normal for a book this length, and that brings me back to my problems with biography as a genre.
There is just too much detail. Poe went here, spoke to so and so, asked for such and such, went on an alcoholic bender when disappointed, rinse and repeat.
In our post-truth, anti-knowledge era, I'm not sure I want less academic rigour, or more impressionistic biographies.
But I sure could have used less of Poe's relentless, unkind hustle.
Despite my disappointment at finding a literary hero so narcissistic and self-serving, the man's literary legacy is unimpeachable. While he achieved much of his early notoriety as a literary critic (revealing his wit and insight alongside his malicious vindictiveness), and while he viewed his poetry perhaps most favourably of all his work, it is his mastery of the short story that stands the test of time.
To my mind, Poe is second only to Lovecraft in the horror pantheon, with dozens of stories in the genre, including at least half a dozen stone cold classics. As if that wasn't enough, he appears to have invented the detective story, and wrote another half dozen or so of the most famous poems to come out of the United States.
This flawed, brilliant man died young, age forty, impoverished, famed for his writing, but unaware that he had achieved the iconic status he sought so furiously, and futilely, in life.
The sadness and tragedy of Poe's life render him an ideal proponent of gothic, ghostly horror, and to this day the depth of his writing, characterization and philosophy of loss provide genre stories with far more depth than they normally carry.
I just wish this biography had skimped on some of the soap-operatic details of the daily grind of the man's life.
Recommended for fans of Poe who can process hundreds of names, places, arguments, slights (real and imagined), literary magazines, etc., etc.
Highly recommended for academics, or fans of the above sort of bibliographic detail.
On the fence? Just go read "The Black Cat" or "The Fall of the House of Usher" or "Cask", or a poem such as "The Raven". Then you can make up your own mind.
December 20, 2009
Good biography on the literary giant. Silverman has written an informative glimpse on the man and his times. Poe's life from his troubled youth to his brilliant but chaotic and turbulent career leading to his tragic and mysterious death are adequately represented. His personal life, with it's string of doomed friendships and endless antagonisms betray a man who most likely suffered from mental illness, relieved occasionally by unbelievably patient individuals who despite Poe's off-putting personality, cared deeply enough for him and his work to assist him in his direst moments, which were frequent; and a selfless mother-in-law and his young cousin who he married.
Another highlight of the book is the portrayal of the world of early-19th Century American literary society. The noted figures of the day brush shoulders with each other and lesser lights, and Poe's interaction with them is revealing and interesting, as it highlights how the man stood out both positively and negatively with his peers.
The only flaw is Silverman's seemingly perverse approach to Poe's writings. He lauds lesser-known tales and poems while classics like "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" don't receive their proper study and admiration. It's as if the author felt that such writings have been studied to death and he didn't have to add more to them. But a true biography gives ample credit where it's due. Or perhaps the biographer felt a twisted jealousy in Poe's masterpieces and dealt it a vengeful hand through that. Either way, it reflects poorly on the book and it's author.
As a snapshot of the time and it's man, Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance is a decent and informative read on early America and her greatest man of letters.
Another highlight of the book is the portrayal of the world of early-19th Century American literary society. The noted figures of the day brush shoulders with each other and lesser lights, and Poe's interaction with them is revealing and interesting, as it highlights how the man stood out both positively and negatively with his peers.
The only flaw is Silverman's seemingly perverse approach to Poe's writings. He lauds lesser-known tales and poems while classics like "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" don't receive their proper study and admiration. It's as if the author felt that such writings have been studied to death and he didn't have to add more to them. But a true biography gives ample credit where it's due. Or perhaps the biographer felt a twisted jealousy in Poe's masterpieces and dealt it a vengeful hand through that. Either way, it reflects poorly on the book and it's author.
As a snapshot of the time and it's man, Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance is a decent and informative read on early America and her greatest man of letters.
July 26, 2020
This is my second reading of this older biography. After moving to Richmond, VA, where Poe spent much of his early life, I wanted to refresh my memory on the details of his life. This biography is less sympathetic to Poe and more critical of his work than I recalled. Silverman’s careful reading of his writings is impressive, though—especially when you consider how much dross Poe churned out just to barely eke out a living. Poe is a fascinating and tragic character, and the subtitle of the book is absolutely true to the his mindset. It’s still pretty mind-boggling to me that a writer of his fame and stature had to constantly beg for money throughout his life; I’d like to imagine what he could have done if he hadn’t been so strapped every minute of his life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2013
Very good at sheading light on the many hidden corners of Poe's life. It seemed like tragedy was his constant companion. Poe created many of the genres like the Mystery book that we know today. His mission was to elevate American literature through his often harsh critiques.
Making a living solely through writing and copywriting was a nearly impossible task, especially since his sharp critiques did not engender him to other writers of the period. He had a running battle with Longfellow who he felt was one of the better poets of the age. At the end of his life he was engaged to three different women! He even proposed in a graveyard. How apraPoe. Great writer that he is, his works remain classics.
Making a living solely through writing and copywriting was a nearly impossible task, especially since his sharp critiques did not engender him to other writers of the period. He had a running battle with Longfellow who he felt was one of the better poets of the age. At the end of his life he was engaged to three different women! He even proposed in a graveyard. How apraPoe. Great writer that he is, his works remain classics.
November 27, 2013
Considered the best biography of Poe available, I can't help but feel that the definitive bio is yet to be written. I never felt that I got to know Poe or to be tied into his story too deeply. This bio, while good, feels a little academic for the casual reader, and a little too speculative for the academic reader. Not bad, and worth a go if you want to read psychoanalytic readings of the works, but its dryness may turn some readers away.
March 24, 2013
A detailed and fair-minded biography of Poe. Some segments on Poe's ideas grew a bit drawn out and a little technical, but it is a very good portrait of one of the greatest writers America has know. See more at: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
September 25, 2008
Great biography. Poe was really a hard-luck guy treated badly by his father-in-law and who had horrible luck in love. Many people he knew, including his mother and wife, were killed by consumption (TB). A very sad story, especially when you consider how little he got for his great writing.
July 21, 2014
An amazing bio of a very polarizing literary figure. I've heard this was a "sympathetic" biography of Poe's life but I didn't feel it pulled any punches. A heartfelt, in-depth and sometimes heavy portrayal of E. A. Poe. Worth the read.
August 22, 2012
Can't imagine a more complete or meticulously detailed work. But - what a tragic life he led. Have to wonder what he would have accomplished if his life had been less difficult.
December 17, 2019
I read this biography mainly because I was writing a dissertation chapter on Poe, but also because I find Poe to be as interesting of a person as I find his work. Silverman's tone is that balanced mix of praise and criticism, lauding Poe's genius and defending him against rumor, but also unafraid to call out Poe's worst qualities, his lies and neuroses. Poe was the nineteenth century's version of a troll, taking pleasure in provoking others and elevating his own intelligence above others, despite evidence of his own shortcomings. Poe was deeply affected by numerous issues including poverty, abandonment, and alcoholism. He never knew his father, and his mother died when he was quite young. He had a turbulent relationship with his foster parents, especially John Allan, ostensibly over money, but it's easy to see how Poe was probably deeply hurt from Allan's refusal to give him the family stability that the young man would have craved. Then there's Virginia, his cousin whom he married at age 13 (Silverman delves into the nature of their relationship, but much about it must be speculation), who died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, devastating Poe and sending him into a downward spiral that would lead to his own death two and a half years later in 1849.
As with many author biographies, Silverman doesn't spend much time going too deep into interpretation of his works, though usually he does give us some context for them and notes some of the larger patterns throughout his work. While my main draw to Poe is his gothic fiction and poetry, Silverman shows his acerbic wit and irony that fueled much of his work, as well as grand aesthetic pretensions. The most fascinating aspect for me was exploring Poe the critic, who was quite harsh and hyperbolic, and even got into literary "feuds" with other writers such as Charles Dickens and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (actually, neither Dickens nor Longfellow really responded to Poe's accusations, but their supporters did). Also interesting was finding out more about Virginia's mother, Maria or "Muddy" as everyone seemed to call her. Poe seemed to love her as dearly as he did Virginia, and is one of the few people Poe seems to never have spoken ill of. (Even Virginia, whom Poe talked down after her death when he was courting a new wife, doesn't seem to have escaped his criticism.) Muddy, a practical and caring woman, likely held the bare threads of the Poe household together, between the poverty, Poe's constant irritability and depression, and Virginia's perpetual illness.
As with many author biographies, Silverman doesn't spend much time going too deep into interpretation of his works, though usually he does give us some context for them and notes some of the larger patterns throughout his work. While my main draw to Poe is his gothic fiction and poetry, Silverman shows his acerbic wit and irony that fueled much of his work, as well as grand aesthetic pretensions. The most fascinating aspect for me was exploring Poe the critic, who was quite harsh and hyperbolic, and even got into literary "feuds" with other writers such as Charles Dickens and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (actually, neither Dickens nor Longfellow really responded to Poe's accusations, but their supporters did). Also interesting was finding out more about Virginia's mother, Maria or "Muddy" as everyone seemed to call her. Poe seemed to love her as dearly as he did Virginia, and is one of the few people Poe seems to never have spoken ill of. (Even Virginia, whom Poe talked down after her death when he was courting a new wife, doesn't seem to have escaped his criticism.) Muddy, a practical and caring woman, likely held the bare threads of the Poe household together, between the poverty, Poe's constant irritability and depression, and Virginia's perpetual illness.
July 27, 2025
Kenneth Silverman is an American biographer whose study of Cotton Mather received the Putlizer Prize in Literature. This, another entry in the crowded market of Poe biographies, is less loved, although I would respectfully disagree with the reviewers who have described the book as shallow. I found it an immediately accessible work, even more so than Arthur Hobson Quinn's definitive 1941 biography, which is by its nature extremely lengthy given its constant printing of all the source material upon which Quinn relied to create his work. Silverman's book, although traditional and, thus, throwing up few surprises for the most part, is much more to the point, and appears to move through its subject's life at speed. As usual for a murky figure like Poe, there are questions regarding the authenticity of sources, but for me the most important element of this book is its accessibility. The author writes in a clear, conversational style with just the right level of authority in his tone, and what soon becomes apparent above all is that this is a book written to entertain with its lively and enjoyable voice.
December 18, 2021
I expected a Poe biography to challenge many of the popular myths about him, and I also expected it to be as engaging as he himself was. My first expectation was met through Silverman's painstaking research, but I struggled to engage with the book. Its portrait of Poe wasn't particularly vivid--I wanted a deeper understanding of his interior life and the ways his past colored his adulthood. His literary criticism pieces that were scattered throughout the book did make for interesting reading, and I would have loved more of his artistic philosophy and process. I learned more about Poe, which was great, but I didn't enjoy the experience.
I also just have to say that the lack of footnotes for this book was appalling. We have to stop just throwing in a bunch of notes at the end and making the reader sort out which quote matches which source rather than marking them within the body of the text. This is literally the worst way of documenting sources, and it definitely made me dislike this book more than I would have otherwise.
I also just have to say that the lack of footnotes for this book was appalling. We have to stop just throwing in a bunch of notes at the end and making the reader sort out which quote matches which source rather than marking them within the body of the text. This is literally the worst way of documenting sources, and it definitely made me dislike this book more than I would have otherwise.
September 7, 2024
Kenneth Silverman's biography of Edgar Allan Poe, "Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance," paints a different picture of the tormented literary genius than the caricature we're often presented. It's not the most flattering portrait, but Silverman's research certainly supports it. Even so, it's a portrait painted as tenderly as possible, and with considerable objectivity - made all the more impressive by Poe's tendency to be manipulative, hypocritical, petty, vain, and self-absorbed. It's a talented biographer who can treat a subject with such glaring flaws with such subtle empathy.
Also worth praise are Silverman's examinations and analyses of Poe's best works, which are never fanciful or overly speculative. The honesty and fairness with which Poe is examined are traits all biographies should strive to attain. Compelling but never salacious, "Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance" is an excellent, engrossing read.
Also worth praise are Silverman's examinations and analyses of Poe's best works, which are never fanciful or overly speculative. The honesty and fairness with which Poe is examined are traits all biographies should strive to attain. Compelling but never salacious, "Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance" is an excellent, engrossing read.
October 27, 2025
Interesting and well written biography that also serves as a literary critique of a man I heard about but knew relatively little. Now that I feel I have a solid grasp of his life and works I can say, now that I’ve educated myself, that I thoroughly would not have liked Edgar Allan Poe were he to be alive today. Though possessed with a brilliant mind and imagination he strikes me as a toxic, immature, self absorbed, thin skinned, bipolar, narcissist with multiple personality, anxiety and depression related issues. The author thoroughly takes the reader through his life and it’s clear that his conditions originate in childhood and his lack of motherly love or fatherly bonds. Nevertheless his life was spent in perpetual poverty and self induced misery. From this biography I learned that Poe was more than a poet and a composer of dark tales but a literary critic who burned enough bridges to the light way to his early grave at the age of 40, broke, nearly insane and all but friendless.
June 8, 2022
What can one say about Poe? What can one say about this biography of Poe? Both are guilty of some convoluted writing.
Silverman writes as if he thinks it's still the mid-19th century, using obscure words and phrases it must have taken him a long time to look up and work into his manuscript. And while many of the sources used may be unreliable (as noted by Silverman himself), Poe's letters contain plenty to provide a well-rounded self-portrait: alcoholic, pathological liar, self-sabotaging, incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions, arrogant, and let's not forget pro-slavery.
If you take away his writing talent, Poe was just a loser drunk, chronically poor with unrealistic expectations. Overall a sound, well-researched biography of someone who would have greatly benefited from therapy.
Silverman writes as if he thinks it's still the mid-19th century, using obscure words and phrases it must have taken him a long time to look up and work into his manuscript. And while many of the sources used may be unreliable (as noted by Silverman himself), Poe's letters contain plenty to provide a well-rounded self-portrait: alcoholic, pathological liar, self-sabotaging, incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions, arrogant, and let's not forget pro-slavery.
If you take away his writing talent, Poe was just a loser drunk, chronically poor with unrealistic expectations. Overall a sound, well-researched biography of someone who would have greatly benefited from therapy.
September 20, 2020
I begrudgingly added a third star for the mere scope of the work--a man who lived only forty years, and Silverman managed to wring nearly a 500 page tome out of what little is left documenting that time--but only for that.
....I wrote an eight paragraph angry rant about the perspectives of the biography/haphazard and directionless, disjointed mess of literary criticism loosely based on outdated Freudian interpretation and biographical readings of the stories and poems, and opinions presented as fact, but deleted it becuase I didn't have the patience to cite my sources, and didn't want to make myself look like an idiot in a literary debate.
....I wrote an eight paragraph angry rant about the perspectives of the biography/haphazard and directionless, disjointed mess of literary criticism loosely based on outdated Freudian interpretation and biographical readings of the stories and poems, and opinions presented as fact, but deleted it becuase I didn't have the patience to cite my sources, and didn't want to make myself look like an idiot in a literary debate.
July 12, 2020
Silverman's tone throughout this biography is neutral. He is completely non-judgmental in his account of Poe's life, which is nothing more than a history of the acts of a -- to use a nineteenth century word -- scoundrel. Silverman's readings of Poe's works are plausible, but more interesting are the Poe-like associations he makes between the texts and the life. The end result is that, despite being an entirely UN-Poe-like narrator, we get a life that in all its details could have derived from the addled genius of Poe himself.
June 27, 2022
This biography was so well-written, it felt as if it was a work of fiction. Poe's life was fraught with tragedy and strife, much of the latter he brought upon himself, likely as a result of all the former. In any case, this biography was incredibly thorough without ever becoming a bore. It's evident how much research Silverman did to write this biography, and it paid off. It dispels many myths about Poe, both positive and negative, and delves further into Poe's life, death and behaviors than I ever would have thought possible.
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