Doyle On Poe.

Doyle On Poe.

“Poe is, to my mind the supreme original short story writer of all time. His brain was like a seed-pod full of seeds which flew carelessly around, and from which have sprung nearly all our modern types of story.“ 

So wrote Arthur Conan Doyle in his non-fiction book Through The Magic Door (1907). Doyle was referring to the American short story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849).

Arthur Conan Doyle first discovered the stories of Edgar Allan Poe at the age of 17. At that time Doyle was about to become a medical student. In a letter to Dr Bryan Charles Waller, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that he had been studying; “…I seldom emerge from my cell except for meals and sometimes in the evening when I petrify our small family circle by reading Poe’s Tales.“

In Through The Magic Door, Arthur Conan Doyle refers to his copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: “I am sure that if I had to name the few books which have really influenced my own life I should have to put this one second only to Macaulay’s Essays. I read it young when my mind was plastic. It stimulated my imagination and set before me a supreme example of dignity and force in the methods of telling a story.“

However, Arthur Conan Doyle then added the following caveat: “It is not altogether a healthy influence, perhaps. It turns the thoughts too forcibly to the morbid and the strange.“

Arthur Conan Doyle then proceeds to describe Edgar Allan Poe’s character: “…a saturnine creature, devoid of humour and geniality, with a love for the grotesque and the terrible. The reader must himself furnish the counteracting qualities or Poe may become a dangerous comrade.“

Here I think Arthur Conan Doyle is being rather harsh about Poe. But to be fair, it is possible that Doyle’s opinions were coloured by a defamatory and inaccurate obituary that appeared soon after Poe’s death. This was written by a literary rival, with whom Edgar Allan Poe had quarrelled. Unfortunately, this obituary was also included in a book and was accepted as a ‘reliable‘ source for many years.

A noted literary critic of his day, Edgar Allan Poe was also an author, poet, and editor. Today he is chiefly remembered for such poems as Annabel Lee, and The Raven. There are also his tales of the macabre, which include The Black Cat, The Tell Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado.

Edgar Allan Poe is also generally credited as the creator of the first fictional detective. C. Auguste Dupin made his debut in the story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). Dupin is also featured in The Mystery of Marie Roget (1842), and The Purloined Letter (1844).

These stories proved to be highly influential. In his book Through The Magic Door, Arthur Conan Doyle refers to “writers on the detection of crime,“ whose, “…main art must track back to those admirable stories of Monsieur Dupin, so wonderful in their masterful force, their reticence, their quick dramatic point,“

C. Auguste Dupin is also mentioned in the very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet (1887). Doctor Watson observes that Holmes reminds him of “Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin.“ Holmes’ is not impressed. After dismissing Dupin as “a very inferior fellow,“ Sherlock Holmes goes on to say that; “He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine.“

So while Arthur Conan Doyle later praised the Dupin stories, his fictional character brushed them aside. An interesting paradox indeed! 

Edgar Allan Poe’s short life was spent in relative obscurity. It was also blighted by poverty and alcoholism. Yet his legacy has proven to be enduring - as Arthur Conan Doyle was among the first to admit.

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