THE PIT SWINGS BOTH WAYS –

June 5, 2023 – Previous articles in this blog have described the tortured lives of remarkably creative and accomplished figures, including Herman Melville, Charles Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln, and touched on the possible interaction of mental illness and their remarkable achievements. The discussion of Herman Melville, for instance, centered on the role of possible bipolar illness on his worldview, his periods of seemingly boundless energy, and his imagery.

It is fitting, then, to also consider the role of substance abuse in the lives of creative figures. A particularly appropriate person is Edgar Allan Poe, poet, short story writer, and creator of both the science fiction and detective genres, who exemplified the image of the alcoholic writer. 1 This first article in this two-part series will provide the background of the story of his life; the second part will explore his addiction to alcohol and possibly other substances. Born in Boston in 1809, Edgar Poe was the son of actors David Poe and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. His father, the son of an Irish immigrant who had been an officer in the Revolutionary War, was an actor of limited talent who was very fond of the bottle and deserted his family when Edgar was one year old. His mother succumbed to tuberculosis at age 21, a year later.

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