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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 293 - Last Will and Testament of William Galt

While ideally, I would like to have all the episodes in this podcast in chronological order - for example, start with Poe’s birth and deal with his writings and then his death, followed by his influence on literature - that just isn’t always possible. Today is an example, for an examination of portions of the will of William Galt.

Galt was certainly important to Poe’s development, but if you are hazy regarding the name William Galt, stick with Mr. Poe and me, and become familiar with the role of Galt in Poe’s life.

Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Poe.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 292 - Loss of Breath

Today, Mr. Poe and I will look at his short story “Loss of Breath.”

Certainly, "Loss of Breath" is what one might call a lesser-known Poe short story,first published in 1832 in The Philadelphia Saturday Courier. I doubt that you would consider the story one of my more famous works of horror and mystery,

Such as The Tell Tale Heart or The Fall of the House of Usher or The Pit and the Pendulum …

Yes, Mr. Bartley - this story is primarily humorous and satirical in nature.
The story revolves around a man who literally loses his breath and goes through a series of absurd and increasingly outlandish situations as a result.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 291. Poe and the Outsider
In the previous episode the character of the ghost of Mr. Poe and I first discussed the Alien and Sedition Acts. First, I’d like to apologize I have a cold/flu, and just listened to my recorded voice - you will just have to bear with me. Of course, that gives the voice of the ghost of Mr. Poe - a Southern accent too

And here's the ghost of Mr. Poe -

Hello, Mr. Bartley - I believe you want to talk about the Alien and Sedition Acts, and how they indirectly affected my literary works. Now remember, while I was certainly born after the Alien and Sedition Acts were enacted and repealed, these laws quite possibly had an indirect influence on my writing and political views. Although they were no longer in effect during my Poe's lifetime, their legacy continued to shape political debates and attitudes towards government power.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 290 - Alien - or perhaps more accurately Poe and The Alien and Sedition Acts. And no, I am not going to talk about little creatures from outer space.

This podcast will deal with Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 - acts which very well may have affected Poe - but first I want to talk about those acts as they have recently been discussed by President-Elect Trump.

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In the previous episode, the ghost of Mr. Poe and I began a discussion of the presidential election of 24 - 1824 that is - an election that the young Poe would have been familiar with. And if you have not heard that podcast episode, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. It only tells 1/4th of the story - keep listening and I think you will see what I mean.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 288 - Election Conflict, Part 1

You are probably sick and tired of hearing and reading about election conflicts and disagreements - I know that I am. But in this episode, the ghost of Mr. Poe and I would like to take you back to a rather dramatic and controversial Presidential election that most historians believe Edgar Poe would have known about.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - this is episode 287 - Poe’s Views on Democracy and Donald Trump.

When I started this weekly podcast over 4 years ago, my original intentions were to keep Poecentric - meaning only about the works, times, and life of America’s Shakespeare - that grew to some of the literary influences on his works. Even though I have strong religious and political beliefs,, I wanted to concentrate on Edgar Poe as much as possible. But for this election season, I could not resist dealing with what Poe might have felt about American politics - utilizing how the writer felt about democracy and demagogues in the 19th century.

In this podcast, I would like to talk with Mr. Poe about his views of government - and especially about what he might have thought about the specter of Donald Trump. I had previously been under the impression that Edgar Allan Poe was somewhat reactionary in his political positions - coming from a wealthy and rather privileged background in the South - but after doing a great deal of research, I was surprised at how nuanced his views toward democracy actually were.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - this is episode 286 - an examination from a contemporary standpoint of one of Edgar Poe’s most famous stories - The Pit and the Pendulum. And as you will hear very soon, this episode also marks the return of the Ghost of Mr. Poe.

Even tho The Pit and the Pendulum story was first published in 1842, the tale certainly has the elements of any great story - the dynamics of the tale are not necessarily confined to any specific historical period. Much of Greek and Roman mythology, Shakespeare, and any great literature deals with human emotions that could be found in any era. Poe’s works are no different.

So for this conclusion to episodes dealing with historical speeches and poems about democracy, I would like to look at The Pit and the Pendulum from a contemporary perspective. Edgar Poe obviously did not write the story specifically with a fascist government in mind - the rise of fascist and Nazi dictators did not occur until well after Poe’s death - but I hope to show in this interpretation how the torture that the narrator suffers in The Pit and the Pendulum can be viewed from the standpoint of a natural outgrowth of creeping fascism. And I won’t be changing a word in Poe’s original story.

But before Mr. Poe and I continue, I want to point out that I try for each episode to be around 30 minutes in length. However I believe the increasing suspense built by The Pit and the Pendulum calls for the story to be read or experienced at one sitting - so this Halloween episode will be closer to one hour, but I think you will find it worth it.