Everyday Canvas

That Date with Edgar

If you went on a date with Edgar Allen Poe, how would it go? What would you do? Did the raven join you and Edgar? Would it end in joy or despair?

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Since you asked, it has been too difficult a date for me, not because of the guy, mind you, but the logistics of it. Because Edgar was too scared to pick me up, scared of the horrid presidential race to which we're exposing the entire creation, I had to time-travel to where and when he lived. Moreover, I had to zoom in on him before he fell for his 13-year-old cousin.

Eewww! On top of the age problem, imagine anyone falling for their cousin!

Yet, I wanted to meet Edgar, cousin business or not. Besides, I knew what would happen to him eventually and curiosity killed the cat, which in my case was more or less of a literary curiosity. So I took a chance although I am a married woman, but then, in the nineteenth century, my twentieth-century marriage wouldn’t count, anyway. Right?

It wasn’t easy to make it exactly to 1830 when he was living in New York City before he moved to Baltimore in 1831 to live with his aunt and his young (child) cousin, whom he married, later.

Edgar met me uptown on a new two-block street in front of the Lafayette Place of the money magnate John Jacob Astor. The so-called luxurious building’s construction was just about to finish, but its columns were in place and a few Sing-Sing inmates were still on the job. They looked at me weirdly, even though I had managed to find a passable attire for the era from the NY Repertoire Theater’s costume department.

Edgar was in a pretty good mood for having just published the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. As we sauntered down the street, I told him I had read The Fall of the House of Usher and said, ”I wouldn’t want to be in Usher’s presence.”

He looked at me funny. “But you are in my presence, milady!”

Now, I looked at him funny but didn’t say anything.

“Who do you think Usher is?” He grinned. “Usher is me. Usher and the physical house are one and the same. A house always is a person.”

Who was I to contradict him!

There’s a lot more to this date to tell you about, but I’ll pass for the moment because I still am undoing what I did to get ready for Hurricane Matthew, and I don’t have a novel-length time. Maybe on some other prompt occasion? Okay, just for the curious minds, no, there was no kiss at the end, just a very brief handshake.

I wonder why my right hand still feels the chill...