In “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe,” American author and critic Mark Dawidsiak has written a new biography about his attempts to sort out what he calls “the acres of contradictory evidence” on how the famous American writer of such horror stories as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” lived and died.
In a feature story that currently appears in Issue No. 187 of online
AirMail.news, Dawidsiak heaps the onus of blame for the grossly twisted perception of Poe’s life and personality on Rufus Griswold, whom he describes as a vengeful poet and editor who buried Poe “under a mountain of grotesque lies, distortions, and fabrications” in an obituary he had written and got published by the
New York Tribune the day after Poe’s funeral in the year 1849.
Dawidsiak writes: “[Grisworld] did as much lasting harm to his own reputation as he did to Poe’s, perhaps more. Griswold wanted to be remembered for his art as a poet and litterateur, having tried to establish himself as an arbiter of literary taste with the anthology
Poets and Poetry of America. Instead, if he’s known for anything today, it’s for the art of character assassination.”
Read Mark Dawidsiak’s “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe” in the online AirMail.news now!
