Edgar Allan Poe Didn't Like Her

I have an internship. I finally have an internship. My first day, a mere three days ago, I came in, ready to work and too nervous to eat lunch that day. Despite my panicked, I-feel-like-a-bunny-about-to-be-eated sympathetic nervous system reaction, I did not have any reason to lose my mind. I had anticipated an overwhelming workload, for an overwhelmed newspaper office (I am a free worker, for a short-on staff country newspaper: hence, my unpaid "internship"). Instead, I surfed the internet while I waited for assignments, aka, "Here's a story about a kid who shot a turkey. Can you convert this into digital text and email it to me?" Two sentences typed later––boredom again reigned.

So, I took the suggestion. I surfed the internet. I researched stories I knew I had to cover someday in the future and tried to get some background knowledge. Google had nothing, so I turned to digital copies of old newspapers from the 1800s. I got bored with the county the newspaper covered, so I skipped off to some old Pennsylvanian newspapers and tried to find an article about my perhaps-ancestors. I bled that topic dry, until I stumbled across something else interesting. My thrice-great aunt, Susan Rigby Morgan, respected wife of Lyttelton F. Morgan, the founder and president of Morgan State University, was a writer. My interest had been tackled. I googled her name and found the titles to her books, her poetry––whatever I could find. Finally, I found something significant. One of her books was Swiss Heiress, or, The Bride of Destiny, published by J. Robinson, 1836 (www.eapoe.org/people). A little more digging, and I found out that someone famous had critiqued her book.........

...... and his name was Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe had critiqued my great-great-great aunt's book. Edgar Allan Poe had critiqued my great-great-great aunt's book. Edgar Allan Poe had critiqued my . . . . No. It was too good to be true. Being the good little scholar that I am, I googled it a few more times but found no evidence to the contrary. I trusted Google. Ok. So "I'm" famous enough in ancient blood for The Poe to notice an ancestor (a distant aunt, though she may have been).

The website where I initially found the clue proffered a link to Poe's critique, so I clicked it. There, in plain print on a plain page, I saw the first part of his essay. I was ecstatic. I began to skim it, stopped my habit, and forced myself to enjoy it: "The Swiss Heiress should be read by all who have nothing better to do (www.eapoe.org/works)."

Oh. Burn. My aunt sucked. Now I was even more interested. I read closely. From the esteemed Edgar Allan Poe's descriptions of why Mrs. F. Morgan was so execrable, I was willing to believe him. She waxed philosophical, religious, theological, and plotless too many times for even his reaching theoretical mind to enjoy. "Accordingly, at eight years old, [the Swiss Heiress]* grows melancholy and interesting, patronizes the gipsies, curses the Count Laniski [her unwanted betrothed]*, talks about "fate, fore-knowledge, and free-will," and throws aside her bread-and-butter for desperation and a guitar (www.eapoe.org/works)." She attempted the Gothic horror story. Poe, the unchallenged master of the genre, could not handle her inferior piece, but threw her book to only the bored. His last line sums up best his opinion: "Only imagine a string of delightful sentences, such as the following, for the short space of three hundred and ninety-six pages (www.eapoe.org/works)!"

* all brackets are mine

Works Cited

www.eapoe.org/works, Poe, Egar Allan. "E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore." Review of Morgan's The Swiss Heiress, from the Southern Literary Messenger. E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/slm36ms1.htm>. 

www.eapoe.org/people, "Susan Rigby Dallam Morgan." Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Info - Susan Rigby Morgan. Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://www.eapoe.org/people/morgansr.htm>.