Poe: A Life Cut Short (Ackroyd's Brief Lives) [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Peter Ackroyd (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ackroyd's Brief Lives | Publication Date: January 20, 2009

Gothic, mysterious, theatrical, fatally flawed, and dazzling, the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America’s greatest and most versatile writers, is the ideal subject for Peter Ackroyd. Poe wrote lyrical poetry and macabre psychological melodramas; invented the first fictional detective; and produced pioneering works of science fiction and fantasy. His innovative style, images, and themes had a tremendous impact on European romanticism, symbolism, and surrealism, and continue to influence writers today.
In this essential addition to his canon of acclaimed biographies, Peter Ackroyd explores Poe’s literary accomplishments and legacy against the background of his erratic, dramatic, and sometimes sordid life. Ackroyd chronicles Poe’s difficult childhood, his bumpy academic and military careers, and his complex relationships with women, including his marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin. He describes Poe’s much-written-about problems with gambling and alcohol with sympathy and insight, showing their connections to Poe’s childhood and the trials, as well as the triumphs, of his adult life. Ackroyd’s thoughtful, perceptive examinations of some of Poe’s most famous works shed new light on these classics and on the troubled and brilliant genius who created them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Noted author Ackroyd (The Thames) adds to his one-man Brief Lives series this exploration of the short—and predominantly miserable—life of Edgar Allan Poe. Bringing his novelist's skills to bear, Ackroyd opens with Poe's mysterious death in 1849: Like his narratives and his fables, Poe's own story ends abruptly and inconclusively.... Born in Boston in 1809 to traveling actors and orphaned in 1811, Poe was adopted by Richmond, Va., merchant John Allan. Their relationship soured, and Poe left for a rocky academic career at the University of Virginia and a stint at West Point, and in 1836 he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia. Despite critical acclaim for his work—from 1839's The Fall of the House of Usher to his famous 1845 poem, The Raven—Poe constantly struggled with alcoholism and poverty, alienating almost everyone he met. At age 40, Poe was discovered dying in a Baltimore tavern; his whereabouts for the previous week remain unknown. But Ackroyd never demonizes the melancholic man who influenced writers as diverse as Jules Verne and James Joyce, and his readable account should appeal to Poe devotees and newcomers alike. Illus. (Jan. 20)
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From Booklist

The fourth Brief Lives volume written by Ackroyd focuses on a man as famous for his personality as his works. As Ackroyd immediately remarks, Poe is the quintessential poete maudit, or accursed artist, greatly talented but thwarted by circumstances at every turn. Portraying Poe as permanently affected by his mother’s ignominious, youthful death, Ackroyd projects from Poe’s mother fixation his affectional preferences for ill young women such as his wife (and cousin) Virginia Clemm or, when such were unavailable, motherly (but not matronly) aesthetes; meanwhile, dying and dead young beauties haunt his stories and poems. Raised in England and Virginia as something of a charity case, Poe was acutely aware of his gifts, which included unforgettable looks, and, morbidly defensive of them, made for an erratic character, alternately efficient and perspicacious, charming and brilliant in conversation, and vindictive and bizarre in behavior—the last especially when he was drunk, as he lamentably often was; in short, definitely attractive-repulsive and ingratiating-infuriating. Though a bit breezy, this is a fine place to begin celebrating the 2009 Poe bicentennial. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese (January 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038550800X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385508001
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 7.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars POE: A Life Cut Short = A Book Cut Short!!!, April 29, 2008

By 

Richard Masloski (New Windsor, New York USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Poe: A Life Cut Short (Hardcover)

I love Poe. I love reading his writings and reading writings about him. Mr. Ackroyd's take on the Divine Edgar seems to have been written whilst on the run. (Or more likely to jump-the-gun and take some advantage of the fact that 2009 marks the 200th year of Poe's birth.) Anyway: this is NOT a book, it is an extended essay. It covers no new ground, offers no insight of any deep note into Poe's writings and even manages to get the color of Catterina (Poe's cat) wrong in the space of twenty pages. The book itself is only 160 pages long. Everything in this "book" can be found by browsing some of the better Poe websites out there in cyberspace. Instead of a thoughtful, leisured stroll-on-foot through the weird and haunting landscape of Poe's life, Ackroyd packs his readers in a speedster and puts his foot to the pedal and races us through it all as if he had a train to catch...or perhaps a paycheck to cash. Either way, Poe deserves much better and, hopefully, someone somewhere will offer us a rich and rewarding take on Poe as his birthday draws near.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poe: A Life Cut Short is a brief biography of the Raven from Baltimore, July 22, 2009

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C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poe: A Life Cut Short (Ackroyd's Brief Lives) (Hardcover)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) pondered much as he lived out his short dark and dreary life. Poe first saw light in Boston the son of an impecunious actor father and actress mother. His father disappeared; the mother died while Poe was young. He was adopted by John and Fanny Allan from Richmond, Va. who raised the lad. Poe spent some years in England being given an excellent education for his time and place.
Poe had a disastrous relationship with his father; was expelled from West Point and starved in such cities as Boston, Richmond, Philadelphia and Baltimore. He eked out a living selling short story classics such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (the first detective story of note);
"William Wilson": "The Imp in the Bottle"; "The Fall of the House of Usher"; "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other masterpieces of the genre. He also wrote classic poems as "The Bells"; "The Raven" and "Ligea".
Poe married Virginia Clemm his 13 year old cousin who died in his arms. He had affairs with many women who were ill and frail. He often courted rich and married women. Poe was a nonbeliever in God; was a drunkard and never held a steady job for very long. He did edit several literary magazines and newspapers. Some people got along with him while several of his associates found him weird, melancholic and morose. He died in Baltimore in 1849 under mysterious circumstances.
Peter Ackroyd, the prolific London biographer, of such figures as Charles Dickens, William Shakeseare and others has done a superficial job in delineating the main events in Poe's life. The book can be read in a few hours containing the barebones account of the tragic poet's lugubriously unhappy life. There is little literary analysis of Poe's books. The work does contain fine photos of Poe and his circle.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Biography for Getting Into Poe, February 3, 2009

By 

Jym Cherry "Writing Under The Influence of Ro... (Wheaton, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poe: A Life Cut Short (Ackroyd's Brief Lives) (Hardcover)

Like Poe himself, Peter Ackroyd's Poe is of a different time. I remember when I was a kid, my grandmother had a library that she had amassed during her life. Leather bound first editions of some amazing authors, and included in that collection were slim volumes that were biographies of writers. Ackroyd's Brief Lives series, of which Poe is one, harkens back to this tradition, in Poe's case, remarkably well.

Poe is a short book, it does cover the major events of his life in some detail, but not in great depth but I don't think that is its goal. It also doesn't delve deeply into Poe's work and only touches lightly on Poe's major works such as the Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher, but it doesn't have the space to get into the experiences in Poe's life that created these stories or the circumstances that may have influenced their creation. Indeed, there are other biographies that dig into those territories. This Poe is for someone just discovering Poe and wants some basic information on his life, or for someone who wants to be conversant in Poe, or someone who wants a quick refresher course on Poe. For those people this nice little volume is the one to have.