668 - Edgar Allen Poe - Part 2 - The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

Summary4 min read

Podcast Summary: The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds Episode: 668 - *Edgar Allen Poe - Part 2
Release Date: January 28, 2025

Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe’s Turbulent Later Years

In the second part of their deep dive into Edgar Allan Poe’s life, hosts Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds explore the tumultuous latter years of the famed American poet and writer. They delve into Poe’s struggles with alcoholism, his fraught relationships, ongoing feuds within the literary community, and the events leading up to his mysterious death.

Poe’s Declining Reputation and Financial Struggles

The episode picks up with Poe attempting to rebuild his reputation after a series of personal and professional setbacks. Despite writing popular works like "The Mystery of Marie Roget," Poe finds himself financially strapped due to the absence of copyright laws, which prevent him from profiting adequately from his creations.

Dave Anthony (00:56):
"So Edgar is poor and well known and also known as a drunk."

Poe’s inability to secure steady income leads him to take up various journalistic endeavors, further straining his finances and personal life.

A Bitter Feud with Rufus Griswold

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Poe’s contentious relationship with Rufus Griswold, an editor who once supported him but later became his adversary. The feud escalates when Griswold publishes Poe’s poems in a poet anthology but relegates them to the back, favoring less talented friends instead.

Gareth Reynolds (03:31):
"Griswold published them near the back. So he publishes Edgar's near the back of the anthology..."

Feeling slighted, Poe responds by writing scathing reviews and critiques, not only targeting Griswold but also other authors like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This public war of words damages Poe’s standing in the literary community.

Dave Anthony (06:53):
"He never does, though. He's always... always starts with, like, his attack, and then he always throws in, like... But my personal reason."

The hosts humorously compare Poe’s relentless self-attack to modern-day internet feuds, highlighting how his behavior contributed to his isolation.

Strained Personal Relationships and Obsessive Behavior

Poe’s personal life is depicted as equally chaotic. His relationship with his wife, Virginia, is strained by his alcoholism and erratic behavior. After Virginia’s untimely death from tuberculosis, Poe’s grief manifests in disturbing actions, including entering her burial vault to express his love.

Gareth Reynolds (09:07):
"I'm the Michael Jordan of poems. You don't need to do much and he will find bullets aboard material."

His attempts to form new relationships are marred by his obsessive and inappropriate behavior. Poe’s interactions with Frances Sargent Osgood and Helen Whitman illustrate his inability to form healthy romantic connections, often leading to confrontations and further alienation.

Dave Anthony (21:21):
"It's like having a hit song."

Poe’s infatuation with women he perceives as caretakers or replacements for Virginia showcases his deep-seated emotional turmoil and dependency issues.

Final Decline and Mysterious Death

As Poe’s mental and physical health deteriorates, his behavior becomes increasingly erratic. His reliance on laudanum exacerbates his condition, leading to hallucinations and violent outbursts. The culmination of his struggles is his untimely death under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore.

Dave Anthony (62:34):
"So he takes one of the two ounces of laudanum. This is like 30 doses of morphine."

The hosts discuss various theories surrounding Poe’s death, including alcohol poisoning, syphilis, mercury poisoning, rabies, suicide, and the possibility of cooping—a form of electoral fraud involving kidnapping and forced voting.

Gareth Reynolds (74:33):
"It's like, are their names Edgar, Allen and Poe?"

Despite numerous speculations, Poe’s death remains enigmatic, adding to his enduring legacy as a tortured artist.

Legacy and Posthumous Reputation

After his death, Rufus Griswold publishes a defamatory obituary, painting Poe as a deceitful and drunken man. This distorted image overshadowed Poe’s literary achievements for decades, influencing how future generations perceived him.

Dave Anthony (85:25):
"Griswold published his obituary. It began, 'Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday...'"

Contrastingly, Poe’s true peers and admirers, like George Lippard, offered more balanced remembrances, recognizing his genius despite his personal flaws.

Gareth Reynolds (86:32):
"That's how you do it."

The episode concludes by reflecting on the tragic elements of Poe’s life—his genius marred by personal demons, his relentless pursuit of literary excellence, and the legacy shaped by both his work and the posthumous slander he endured.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

Dave Anthony (03:18):
"So Edgar submitted three poems. The drinking doesn't seem to affect his writing at all. He just cranks him out."
Gareth Reynolds (06:06):
"This could be good for our boy. Assuming he can not drink."
Dave Anthony (21:00):
"That confusing get old."
Gareth Reynolds (58:57):
"She's a woman who's leaking. Too, like, bing it."
Dave Anthony (85:25):
"Griswold published his obituary. He accused him of not only being a drug addict, but being dishonest, distrustful, a paranoid man who often walked the streets mumbling."

Conclusion

In this comprehensive exploration of Edgar Allan Poe’s later years, Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds intertwine historical facts with their characteristic humor to paint a vivid picture of a brilliant yet troubled literary figure. They highlight the complexities of Poe’s character, his relentless pursuit of recognition, and the personal demons that ultimately led to his tragic demise. This episode serves as both an informative and entertaining portrayal of one of America’s most enigmatic writers.

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Transcript1,124 lines

[00:00]
Dave Anthony
We're going on tour. And this is.
[00:02]
Gareth Reynolds
It's been a while.
[00:03]
Dave Anthony
March 2025 is when our tour is happening. First of all, we're going to Tempe, Arizona, maybe our favorite city of all time.
[00:09]
Gareth Reynolds
It's the best.
[00:10]
Dave Anthony
That is on March 16th. And then we go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, maybe our favorite city ever, we've ever gone to. That's on March 17th. And then we go to Oklahoma City.
[00:21]
Gareth Reynolds
Which is our fav. We often say that it's our number one.
[00:26]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, it's our number one. The best city I've ever been to. That's on March 18th. On March 19th, we're going to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, our favorite city, without question. And then we head to Dallas, Texas, on March 20th.
[00:39]
Gareth Reynolds
Our favorite city.
[00:40]
Dave Anthony
There's never been a better city than better.
[00:43]
Gareth Reynolds
If you don't like it, you're a Dallas hole.
[00:45]
Dave Anthony
Thank you. And then we go to Houston, Texas, on March 21. City, which is by far the best city. And then we end our tour in Austin, Texas, on March 22 at the Cap City Comedy Club.
[00:57]
Gareth Reynolds
It's the best city in the entire world. Number one city in the world.
[01:01]
Dave Anthony
You can get tickets@dollar podcast.com tour so, Gareth, we're going to be on tour. We are.
[01:10]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm not available for that.
[01:12]
Dave Anthony
Did you not.
[01:13]
Gareth Reynolds
I can't make it.
[01:14]
Dave Anthony
So the Dollop is going on tour.
[01:16]
Gareth Reynolds
I didn't. Let me see what I can do. I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise that I'll be at every show. But I'm excited for you. Let's go back to the roots. So we're going out for Move a Closet on stage. You get in it and just scream. Like, quiz Show.
[01:33]
Dave Anthony
A little over a week in March, starting on March 16, we head to Tempe, Arizona. Then we go to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We just added a second show, which is going to be a best of. We're going to take a topic from 10 years ago and one of your favorites and read it and we will have new reactions because we don't remember.
[01:55]
Gareth Reynolds
It's really a luxury of this show.
[01:57]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So that's the second show in Albuquerque. And then we're going to go to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, Houston, and then Austin. And then in June, starting on June 3rd, we'll be at the Sacramento Punchline. Then we'll be in Boise, Idaho, Spokane, Seattle, Portland Bend, and San Francisco. That's California, not the other one. And that you can get the tickets@dollar podcast.com tour June tournament you're not helpful.
[02:23]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm definitely in for that one. By the way, when I was at Cap City, the manager, the great chandy, was saying that maybe we should add a second show there. So.
[02:33]
Dave Anthony
In the cap.
[02:34]
Gareth Reynolds
In the cap.
[02:34]
Dave Anthony
But. But it's. We're doing like an afternoon show. When would the second show be?
[02:39]
Gareth Reynolds
I would. I mean, I'm really looking to transition to breakfast performance, so I would love to do brunch stuff.
[02:48]
Dave Anthony
So this is Edgar Allan Poe, part two. When we left him.
[02:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Is this a two parter or more?
[02:56]
Dave Anthony
It's just two.
[02:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[02:58]
Dave Anthony
When we left him, he. People started to realize that he's not so great with the drinking and the carrying on. And so he's trying to rebuild his reputation. He's still. He's writing things that are very popular, but he's making no money because there's no copyright laws or anything.
[03:13]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[03:13]
Dave Anthony
So he's poor and well known and also known as a drunk.
[03:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Right. And. And out of control.
[03:20]
Dave Anthony
Really out of control. Yeah.
[03:22]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[03:23]
Dave Anthony
So Edgar wrote the Mystery of Marie Rogue, an installment on his detective series. Very popular detective series.
[03:31]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[03:31]
Dave Anthony
The stories helped boost his rep as a great American storyteller. And he made business friends who admired his talent. Just checking. That's on one was Rufus Griswold. Do you know.
[03:44]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, love his.
[03:48]
Dave Anthony
That's enough, thank you. He's a very fashionable man.
[03:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Yes. He's a bit of a. Yes.
[03:53]
Dave Anthony
Networker.
[03:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Absolutely.
[03:54]
Dave Anthony
Griswold had just left his job at the New York Tribune. He was an editor and he was putting together a poet anthology.
[04:03]
Gareth Reynolds
This could be good for our boy. Assuming he can not drink.
[04:08]
Dave Anthony
Edgar submitted three poems. The drinking doesn't seem to affect his writing at all. He just cranks him out.
[04:15]
Gareth Reynolds
Edgar Allen poems. Does he. Did he ever think of doing that? Do you have anything on your. Your flat computer?
[04:22]
Dave Anthony
Let's just say, you know how upset I am that you finally stumbled across that.
[04:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Check your computer.
[04:28]
Dave Anthony
Griswold published them near the back. So he publishes Edgar's near the back of the mythology. And he gives more room to poets who are friends, but they're not that good.
[04:38]
Gareth Reynolds
Edgar's poems.
[04:40]
Dave Anthony
No, he.
[04:40]
Gareth Reynolds
The ones that he's normally Edgar's are.
[04:42]
Dave Anthony
In the back of the anthology and Griswold's buddies get the front, but they're not good.
[04:46]
Gareth Reynolds
So people are actually making it to the back.
[04:48]
Dave Anthony
Maybe.
[04:48]
Gareth Reynolds
It's very strange to imagine an era where people are consuming that much poetry.
[04:53]
Dave Anthony
It really is. It's. Yeah, yeah. The anthology also featured New England poets heavily And Griswold is from New England, so his buddies. Edgar's offended. Edgar's from the South. He's like, where are my Southern bros?
[05:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, he also seems to be. Have a very short fuse in general.
[05:10]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Yep.
[05:12]
Gareth Reynolds
He's like the Michael Jordan of poems. He's like, you don't need to do much and he will find bullets aboard material.
[05:17]
Dave Anthony
I haven't seen the thing.
[05:19]
Gareth Reynolds
What? The Last Dance. That's just criminal.
[05:25]
Dave Anthony
Have you seen Dune 1 and 2? That's criminal.
[05:28]
Gareth Reynolds
I saw the first one and that was criminal. The editor should be in jail. Did he even cut anything? It's insane. They should make a movie about me watching Dune and it should be called Dune 3. And it's my struggle to sit there and watch the first two dunes. Have you ever seen Dune? Or my car? Don't even bother reacting. It's not worth it.
[05:50]
Dave Anthony
So Griswold is not a big fan of Edgar the Person.
[05:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[05:54]
Dave Anthony
Especially after reading his review of the anthology.
[06:00]
Gareth Reynolds
Edgar's review of his own anthology of Griswold's anthology. Oh, Edgar's review of Griswold's anthology.
[06:06]
Dave Anthony
Griswold.
[06:07]
Gareth Reynolds
What a real networker.
[06:08]
Dave Anthony
Well, Griswold paid Edgar to write it, and then Edgar.
[06:13]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, okay, can we just focus on the backbone he had for being honest about what he felt?
[06:19]
Dave Anthony
Well, Edgar was like, you're trying to bribe me. So he got. He's like, well, fuck you. And then now he's going to write a shitty review, even though I got paid to write a puff piece. He did write some nice things about it, but Griswold. And some nice things about Griswold. He said there were too many New England's poets. He went after, like, the averageness. Edgar said that, yeah, the front end of the book. Griswold didn't want to print it, but Edgar, he didn't want to print it. But then he knew if he didn't print it, then Edgar would see how mad he was. So he didn't want to.
[06:53]
Gareth Reynolds
It's a little like, how do you handle Trump? She just like, yes. Is it worth it?
[07:02]
Dave Anthony
So Griswold is then hired by Edgar's old boss at Graham's to be an editor. So that was the magazine he written for.
[07:11]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep.
[07:11]
Dave Anthony
And he got much more leeway than Edgar had and he got a lot more money.
[07:17]
Gareth Reynolds
So Edgar, I know Edgar takes this in stride. He doesn't drink about it and is cool and moves on.
[07:24]
Dave Anthony
He's very jealous, he's very upset. So he gets his writer buddies to bully Griswold in their writing. So they are now comparing his editor talents to Edgar's and saying that Griswold is bad. And they're.
[07:47]
Gareth Reynolds
How are they even conveying that?
[07:48]
Dave Anthony
Just in there in their writing? So they're all editors and stuff. So they're writing their own things.
[07:53]
Gareth Reynolds
It probably seemed a little calculated, too.
[07:55]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, it had to have. And they were. They were using he made up name for him names for him, like Rumpus Grizzle or Ruful Grizzle.
[08:03]
Gareth Reynolds
Terrible. It's very literally like when a kid tries to zing you and you're like, buddy, you're dealing with an adult brain here. You're not Goo Gris. Yeah. You're just like Betty.
[08:13]
Dave Anthony
No, it's not one.
[08:15]
Gareth Reynolds
By the way, most of my life is batting down nicknames for me.
[08:18]
Dave Anthony
I'm sure.
[08:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, I know you're sure.
[08:21]
Dave Anthony
How would. How would I. What are you talking about?
[08:23]
Gareth Reynolds
Quiet Benji. Stop.
[08:25]
Dave Anthony
One wrote quote, we would give more for Edgar a pose toenail than we would for Rueful Grizzle Soul.
[08:32]
Gareth Reynolds
So that is an attempt. He has more talent in his pinky than Rufus does in his whole body. But it's like a real kind of Tim Burton skew on it.
[08:42]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, it's a Tim Burton skew. Yeah. So Griswold's pissed.
[08:47]
Gareth Reynolds
Sure.
[08:47]
Dave Anthony
A friend described him as, quote, the most irritable and vindictive man I've ever met.
[08:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Griswold.
[08:53]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[08:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, wow.
[08:54]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[08:54]
Gareth Reynolds
So this is.
[08:55]
Dave Anthony
So we got a few.
[08:57]
Gareth Reynolds
We got a feud brewing.
[08:59]
Dave Anthony
So they said he became savage when slighted these. Is it little Dave Anthony here?
[09:08]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Okay. I was about to be like, this era is so weird with the male ego. But then you undercut. I can't do that now.
[09:16]
Dave Anthony
And Griswold had just found out he has tuberculosis. So he's, like, facing a slow death.
[09:23]
Gareth Reynolds
And he's like, I'll go down.
[09:24]
Dave Anthony
So he's. Well, he's more irritable than normal, basically. Also, his wife. His wife just died. And he went into her vault a month after her death and kissed her rotting quote, cold black forehead.
[09:37]
Gareth Reynolds
Who wrote it? Him. Oh, my God. What is with these dudes? Not moving. Let it go. They're gone.
[09:46]
Dave Anthony
A friend found him the next day with his face resting on her head.
[09:50]
Gareth Reynolds
What? So a friend was like, real fast. Who the hell is he?
[09:54]
Dave Anthony
Real fast.
[09:55]
Gareth Reynolds
That, like, went in there and he's like, nephew.
[10:00]
Dave Anthony
So, Edward, we shouldn't. We would.
[10:03]
Gareth Reynolds
That we should.
[10:04]
Dave Anthony
Oh, my God, we are getting carried away.
[10:06]
Gareth Reynolds
We really shouldn't. Oh, you've passed away look at how.
[10:10]
Dave Anthony
Tight and black your skin is.
[10:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Baby, you're cold outside I shouldn't kiss you I died last week I really got a skew. Seriously. I died last week Unbutton your top don't do it. I died last week oh, baby, I'm cold outside I really should bang, baby I should get moving oh, let's bang, baby Seriously, I'm not here. You're just hearing all this song. You're hearing a duet in your head. I feel deranged. Don't do it, Baby, you're cold inside. That's a Dean Martin Necrophilia.
[11:02]
Dave Anthony
So Edgar starts a lecture tour in which Griffin of all this is like, the main topic.
[11:08]
Gareth Reynolds
So, like, if you went to that, you'd be like, can you read some of your stuff?
[11:13]
Dave Anthony
What's going on?
[11:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Rufus is also a. For something he did three and a half years ago.
[11:17]
Dave Anthony
Sorry, I mean, Rufo. And this is all because he put his poems in the back of the book.
[11:28]
Gareth Reynolds
He put his palms in the poems. Oh, poems. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
[11:30]
Dave Anthony
In the back of the.
[11:31]
Gareth Reynolds
No, he's just. He's. He's got a huge problem.
[11:34]
Dave Anthony
So the insults are fucking brutal. I can't wait in the lecture. And in 1844, Edgar moves to New York with Virginia and Muddy. Looking for better opportunities. Right. More and more in New York. And they rent part of a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city.
[11:50]
Gareth Reynolds
Never getting their own spot.
[11:52]
Dave Anthony
The other part of a farmhouse, not the whole thing, just a little part of it. I believe if I recall correctly, the rest wasn't finished. Or was that the last one?
[11:59]
Gareth Reynolds
So the last home was not finished.
[12:01]
Dave Anthony
Okay.
[12:02]
Gareth Reynolds
The lambs are. Did the lambs understand the property line of what we're ren.
[12:05]
Dave Anthony
Go.
[12:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[12:07]
Dave Anthony
There will be lambs coming through the house.
[12:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Let me talk to the.
[12:11]
Dave Anthony
And some cows.
[12:14]
Gareth Reynolds
So apparently the lambs don't understand where we're renting.
[12:18]
Dave Anthony
And there's some hippopotamus because we are trying to get that going. So there's some.
[12:22]
Gareth Reynolds
The right era.
[12:24]
Dave Anthony
Sure.
[12:25]
Gareth Reynolds
So I guess we're trying to switch from cow meat to hippo right now. So there'll be some hippos.
[12:32]
Dave Anthony
Two coming through.
[12:33]
Gareth Reynolds
Coming through.
[12:34]
Dave Anthony
Also a rhino. Just one.
[12:37]
Gareth Reynolds
All right, let me. I'm gonna.
[12:38]
Dave Anthony
Actually, he is for grazing. He keeps the grass at a lower level.
[12:41]
Gareth Reynolds
I feel like he should not be. It's New York in the winter and.
[12:45]
Dave Anthony
There'S a pack of hyenas. No, that's fine.
[12:48]
Gareth Reynolds
That's fine with us.
[12:48]
Dave Anthony
They Keep the predators out.
[12:52]
Gareth Reynolds
Ha. Mahenya. What's that? Please. Oh, I should point out that Scar has killed Mufasa recently in the barn.
[13:03]
Dave Anthony
So how do you know those names?
[13:06]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm just trying to think of the little one. What's the new one?
[13:09]
Dave Anthony
I don't know. I didn't say it.
[13:11]
Gareth Reynolds
Simba.
[13:12]
Dave Anthony
Sure.
[13:13]
Gareth Reynolds
Simba.
[13:13]
Dave Anthony
Simba.
[13:15]
Gareth Reynolds
I don't know.
[13:15]
Dave Anthony
I'm proud of you.
[13:16]
Gareth Reynolds
Lion King was an enjoyable one.
[13:18]
Dave Anthony
Did you ever see the Broadway play?
[13:20]
Gareth Reynolds
No, but Julie Taymor directed it.
[13:22]
Dave Anthony
It's fucking crazy. Yeah.
[13:26]
Gareth Reynolds
So have you ever watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on lsd?
[13:30]
Dave Anthony
No. Have you ever watched Fritz the Cat on lsd? Not recommended. He's a rapist.
[13:39]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh. Whoa. Oh.
[13:41]
Dave Anthony
Fritz the Cat is a nightmare.
[13:42]
Gareth Reynolds
You don't mean Pepe Le Pew?
[13:44]
Dave Anthony
No. Fritz the Cat is the Cat too is a. From the 70s. And it's about a bad cat and it's a cartoon and it's. It's not good. Don't. Don't recommend.
[13:52]
Gareth Reynolds
Dudes are just writing stuff, being like, hey, this cat likes to put his finger up on stranger lady cat's butt and sniff it. And that's fine.
[14:03]
Dave Anthony
So, yeah, this farmhouse, they're still super poor. Sometimes they live on bread and molasses for weeks. It's all they have. And Edgar has to take journalistic work. So slice of life stories about the big city. And then this was all being published in small towns in Pennsylvania. So it's just like that schlocky. Yeah. Like not well, not his deal.
[14:28]
Gareth Reynolds
Right beneath him.
[14:29]
Dave Anthony
Yes. He eventually gets a job working for flamboyant editor of the Mirror, Nathaniel Parker Willis.
[14:37]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[14:39]
Dave Anthony
Now, he didn't get the job himself. Muddy went to Muddy as his aunt. Muddy went to Willis's office job hunting for Edgar, telling people Edgar was sick and he couldn't do it himself.
[14:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, I thought that was like, the selling point. You'll love him. He's really sick. So she's networking on his behalf.
[14:59]
Dave Anthony
She's trying to get a job on his behalf. Because he's fucking drunk.
[15:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Because he's out of control living in a barn.
[15:07]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So Edgar and Willis like and respect each other. Edgar is sober. He says he'll be sober for the job.
[15:14]
Gareth Reynolds
And I. I feel like this is going to work. This one's going to take.
[15:18]
Dave Anthony
Totally going to work.
[15:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep.
[15:19]
Dave Anthony
I. As long as I'm Secretary of Defense, I'll be sober. Trust me.
[15:22]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, God, that shit.
[15:23]
Dave Anthony
Willis said Edgar had to sit quote in the corner.
[15:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Want to see a drunk secretary of Defense.
[15:29]
Dave Anthony
I mean, it's.
[15:29]
Gareth Reynolds
We've had the sober ones.
[15:31]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Let's do something.
[15:31]
Gareth Reynolds
I think the selling, Like, I obviously am opposed to this guy being in charge of war, but the selling point of, like, we've never had someone that so many people have voted against to me is not. This is not getting me. Yeah. It's not making me be like. I'm not recoiling. I'm like, yeah. No. They're all. No. Your approval doesn't make me think better of people.
[15:56]
Dave Anthony
So Willis said Edgar had to sit, quote, in the corner of the editorial room, ready to be called upon for any miscellaneous work of the moment. Announcing news, answering correspondence, noticing amusements.
[16:08]
Gareth Reynolds
We need a breaking poem.
[16:09]
Dave Anthony
So he's like. He's like Twitter of the newsroom. He's like a guy just has to bang shit out really quick. And, yeah. Edgar told the friend, quote, I have reached a crisis in my life. After all the shit, he's finally reached a crisis.
[16:24]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[16:26]
Dave Anthony
Edgar then wrote a critique.
[16:27]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, he's living in a barn that he doesn't fully have access to all of the barn. With his older aunt, his child bride. He's an alcoholic who's writing poems that are undervalued, that he's making no money for.
[16:45]
Dave Anthony
Well, they're valued. He's making money.
[16:46]
Gareth Reynolds
Right. But he's making no money for him. And, I mean, that's enough.
[16:50]
Dave Anthony
He drinks constantly.
[16:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[16:54]
Dave Anthony
So he writes a critique of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's new anthology of poems and accuses Longfellow of plagiarism. And then he lashes out that he's not included in the anthology. So it's all about him.
[17:09]
Gareth Reynolds
Not pick a lane.
[17:11]
Dave Anthony
He never does, though. He's always. He. He always starts with, like, his attack, and then he always throws in, like. But my personal reason.
[17:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Very trumpy.
[17:19]
Dave Anthony
Very trumpy.
[17:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[17:20]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[17:20]
Gareth Reynolds
She's the worst. Nobody likes her opinion. She's. And by the way, nobody's governed better than I have.
[17:28]
Dave Anthony
Longfellow's friends and Edgar get into a print fight.
[17:34]
Gareth Reynolds
Great.
[17:35]
Dave Anthony
They're trading accusations about Longfellow's talent and character. And Edgar goes on another lecture tour, just railing against Longfellow.
[17:46]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[17:46]
Dave Anthony
And saying others, he thought don't deserve fame.
[17:50]
Gareth Reynolds
And what are his road numbers?
[17:52]
Dave Anthony
They're good. They're good people. I mean, he's kind of a comedian in that way. Like, people love his writing. They love his attacks. You know, he's like fucking Don Rickles, but a little more vicious. Like Don Rickles you always knew was fake. But this guy, it's real. Yeah.
[18:07]
Gareth Reynolds
He's genuine.
[18:08]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[18:09]
Gareth Reynolds
Which is kind of nice.
[18:11]
Dave Anthony
It adds to Edgar's fame in New York especially. And then Willis publishes a poem. That's the.
[18:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, the Root.
[18:19]
Dave Anthony
The guy who owns the guy who hired him.
[18:22]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[18:23]
Dave Anthony
He said it was, quote, unsurpassed in English poetry. It will stick to the memory of everyone who reads it.
[18:31]
Gareth Reynolds
That made Edgar happy.
[18:32]
Dave Anthony
No, it is Edgar's the Raven.
[18:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Edgar's the Raven?
[18:36]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. He publishes Edgar's the Raven.
[18:38]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, wow.
[18:40]
Dave Anthony
Which is. I mean, everyone should know it, but if you don't. It's about a narrator visited one night by a raven who repeatedly croaks, nevermore. And the Raven is an instant hit across the country. Papers are going fucking crazy for it. It's being reprinted and reprinted. It's the perfect poem for reciting.
[18:59]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[19:00]
Dave Anthony
And Edgar loves that because he loves to be. It's got a chorus, the center of attention.
[19:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Right.
[19:05]
Dave Anthony
And he gets to do it. He's often asked to do it. Edgar is invited now to meet important people. So he's moving up. He's moving up in A level because of the poem.
[19:16]
Gareth Reynolds
It's crazy.
[19:17]
Dave Anthony
Isn't it weird?
[19:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. It's nuts.
[19:18]
Dave Anthony
It's like having a hit song.
[19:20]
Gareth Reynolds
It is. And it's really weird to know why. I mean, I guess our brains have just changed. But, like, obviously I'm familiar with that poem. And, I mean, that was what, like, English class was when I was in middle school. I would just be like, why did, like, two roads diverged in a yellow wood? You know, I was like, all right. So, like, the guy hit a fork. All right. You know, I mean, the way they break it down. I was like, I'm not equipped to understand why this is good.
[19:49]
Dave Anthony
Well, there isn't anything else, so the emphasis on words is huge.
[19:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Even then, though, I mean, honestly, the Raven. I guess I would be like, I get that one more. Because of the repeatability of the raven. Like, I understand that more, but, like. Like, yeah. To, like, Robert Frost. The Road Less Traveled. I was like, okay, yeah, it's a pass from me.
[20:13]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously. Yeah. It's not for people like yourself.
[20:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[20:21]
Dave Anthony
You know what I mean? Lower. Lowers.
[20:26]
Gareth Reynolds
What's your favorite poem?
[20:27]
Dave Anthony
Down.
[20:28]
Gareth Reynolds
What's your favorite rhyming?
[20:29]
Dave Anthony
The ancient mariner.
[20:30]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, water, water everywhere Not a drop to drink. Oh, really Suck it.
[20:36]
Dave Anthony
It was a perfect poem for reciting, which he was delighted to do. He's invited to meet important people. He's sometimes just introduced as the Raven, that's that I.
[20:46]
Gareth Reynolds
That I would really lean into.
[20:48]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. He's like Rocky now because kids are following him around as he walks the streets.
[20:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow.
[20:55]
Dave Anthony
And they throw pebbles at his heels until he'd whip around different than Rocky. And he'll nevermore.
[21:01]
Gareth Reynolds
That had to get old.
[21:02]
Dave Anthony
I don't know.
[21:03]
Gareth Reynolds
That had to get old.
[21:04]
Dave Anthony
I think he loves it. I think he loves.
[21:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, maybe. I mean, he's drunk and desperate.
[21:08]
Dave Anthony
Also still poor.
[21:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Still poor.
[21:10]
Dave Anthony
That hasn't changed. He leaves the Mirror. He leaves the Mirror to write for the Broadway Journal. And the deal was he'd get a third of the profits.
[21:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Pretty good.
[21:20]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So he's writing reviews. He's still attacking Longfellow. He starts a fight in the Broadway Journal with Longfellow. It's one sided. It is known as the Longfellow War. Even though Longfellow is not responding.
[21:34]
Gareth Reynolds
Sure.
[21:35]
Dave Anthony
An anonymous letter is written in another magazine and it is signed Autus.
[21:41]
Gareth Reynolds
Autus.
[21:42]
Dave Anthony
Autus.
[21:43]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[21:44]
Dave Anthony
And in the letter it dismisses the plagiarism charges and compares the Raven to another poem about a depress lover being visited by a bird.
[21:53]
Gareth Reynolds
He's going to be fucking pissed.
[21:55]
Dave Anthony
So, yeah, he goes off. So over weeks, Edgar writes reply after reply to Otis attacking Longfellow. Over 50 pages, over five articles of response.
[22:08]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[22:11]
Dave Anthony
Otis says he's Longfellow's friend, but he also compliments Edgar, calling him one of America's best poets. It's. Everybody's pretty certain that Otis was actually Edgar writing the critique of himself so that he could write back and forth arguing himself in the papers.
[22:29]
Gareth Reynolds
That is genius. If that's true. That is genius. Shit. He, Tony Clifton.
[22:36]
Dave Anthony
He did. He did.
[22:37]
Gareth Reynolds
That is amazing.
[22:38]
Dave Anthony
A lot of people do that on Twitter. Jimmy Dore was doing that on Twitter.
[22:41]
Gareth Reynolds
And got caught, I remember. Yeah. Like he, he said something from his account.
[22:45]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, he's responding. Yeah. Sometimes his Longfellow attacks took up half of the Broadway Journal.
[22:54]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, if it's good, it's good.
[22:56]
Dave Anthony
Some say he's jealous of Longfellow's monetary success. Longfellow, he's the first American poet to make a lucrative career. Like he's making money. One editor said Edgar's jealousy quote amounted to a mania and he labored under the delusion that everyone was trying to slight him and underrate the value of his work.
[23:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[23:20]
Dave Anthony
Longfellow never responds ever, ever to any of it at all. Which must have made it more crazy.
[23:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, yeah, yeah, Edgar.
[23:29]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, yeah.
[23:29]
Gareth Reynolds
Without question.
[23:30]
Dave Anthony
Must have just made him.
[23:31]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, well, because then you're like, then you'll like right again.
[23:34]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[23:34]
Gareth Reynolds
Look, maybe I was out of line, but you really fucked and then no reply. That drives you crazy. The no reply drives you crazy.
[23:41]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So Longfellow is just a very nice guy.
[23:44]
Gareth Reynolds
It would be great if back then, like when you wrote letters, someone could leave you on reading because that's when you're like, you son of a bitch.
[23:53]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, Longfellow's a very nice guy. He's very easygoing. He understands Edgar's frustration because he knows he's living in poverty and he's a great writer.
[24:01]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[24:02]
Dave Anthony
He said life was, quote, too precious to be wasted in street brawls.
[24:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, well, he's doing well.
[24:07]
Dave Anthony
So during this period of the one sided fight, Edgar starts drinking again.
[24:13]
Gareth Reynolds
That might be the reason why he did it. He was like, this will give me a good reason.
[24:16]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. One day he comes into work and he has to be held up by a friend to get through the door.
[24:24]
Gareth Reynolds
Physically.
[24:24]
Dave Anthony
Yes. He claimed to be bedridden to get out of a lecture.
[24:29]
Gareth Reynolds
In a way, that's fine.
[24:34]
Dave Anthony
Fred said he found Edgar, quote, tottering from side to side and so he took him home. But they had to stop because Edgar tried to fight an editor that he passed in the street.
[24:46]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, yeah, I mean, I get it. Of course it's that, that swaying drunk is really when you have like the awareness to be like, my balance is gone.
[25:00]
Dave Anthony
I think that was a lot. At home, Virginia locks herself in a room.
[25:05]
Gareth Reynolds
How old is she now?
[25:06]
Dave Anthony
She's maybe early 20s.
[25:08]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. She's.
[25:10]
Dave Anthony
She's. Now it's okay.
[25:12]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, no, but yes, now it's like he's ruined her. But now she, you know, right, she.
[25:24]
Dave Anthony
I mean, if there's one, the most tragic person in this whole story is her because she wasted her fucking life with this guy. If only she'd just gone with that other cousin who was like, I'll save you.
[25:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, yeah.
[25:36]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So a speaking engagement goes so poorly cause he's so fucking shit faced that he later said it was a hoax and he just couldn't believe that anyone thought that that could possibly be real.
[25:48]
Gareth Reynolds
Do you think I was really doing that? Why would I. Oh my. Falling down.
[25:54]
Dave Anthony
I would never.
[25:56]
Gareth Reynolds
Throwing up and putting it in my hat. Off the ground. It was all scripted, every moment of it.
[26:03]
Dave Anthony
Like I would really shit on stage.
[26:05]
Gareth Reynolds
You guys just don't even know what a joke is anymore.
[26:09]
Dave Anthony
I do. You don't.
[26:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, good lord. You really think I got so drunk I crapped in a hat, put it on and danced around and said, I'm the prince of mud. I mean, good lord. Good Lord.
[26:21]
Dave Anthony
He said he had wanted to see what it felt like to be publicly hissed. Obviously, no one buys it. Everyone's like, no, dude, everyone knows you're drunk.
[26:29]
Gareth Reynolds
It's just.
[26:29]
Dave Anthony
What did you feel like his for once?
[26:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, good Lord.
[26:33]
Dave Anthony
I've never been not liked.
[26:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Come on. Yeah, you know me. Popular, calm, always liked.
[26:39]
Dave Anthony
So there's rumors that he's cheating on Virginia.
[26:41]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, boy. I can't wait to find this age.
[26:43]
Dave Anthony
She's sick. She's basically wasting away at this point. She's tb, just full on. It's taken her. Now, Frances Sargent Osgood is a poet, and Edgar meets her. He complimented her during a lecture in writing about her lecture that he saw, and then he meets her afterwards. She's 34, a little old. She has a very. Well, you say that she has a very childlike appearance and demeanor.
[27:15]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[27:16]
Dave Anthony
Griswold called her personality, quote, almost infantile. This is perfect for him when happy. She was once described as, quote, clapping her hands and crowing like a baby.
[27:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, Christ.
[27:32]
Dave Anthony
Somehow he made it worse than that.
[27:33]
Gareth Reynolds
No, it's like, baby is not great.
[27:37]
Dave Anthony
But Osgood is the most famous woman poet in America.
[27:42]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[27:43]
Dave Anthony
She's married to an older man who is a business guy. He's always away. So she and Edgar start trading flirty poems in the Broadway Journal, and then they also start writing private letters.
[27:56]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, the public flirting is strange.
[27:58]
Dave Anthony
Not good.
[27:59]
Gareth Reynolds
No, no. And then the private letters, obviously.
[28:01]
Dave Anthony
No.
[28:02]
Gareth Reynolds
I wonder how that works. Are you just mailing those, the private letters?
[28:06]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, probably. Unless they're in the same town. That messenger?
[28:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[28:11]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. I mean, mostly male, I would think. In the same town. Probably not.
[28:15]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, I guess Virginia's bedridden and her husband's always gone, but still, I would find a little stress with that.
[28:20]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[28:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Having to hide letters.
[28:21]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're together also. Yeah. So they're in the same town because they're together at salons and. And parties. They're hanging out together, and they're going to parties together, and they're always together.
[28:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[28:36]
Dave Anthony
People said she watched him with her face upturned in wonder. Well, that's like how you and me.
[28:42]
Gareth Reynolds
That's like, you show me what an upturned face of wonder is. Okay. So that is how I follow you around. Yeah.
[28:48]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[28:48]
Gareth Reynolds
That is true.
[28:49]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. A drunk. Edgar told a friend he loved her. He begins to pursue her more openly, following as she traveled to different cities, telling her he loved her.
[29:01]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. I'm sure she was into it, but that is annoying.
[29:04]
Dave Anthony
I don't know. It just feels like it's. It's like extra evil if your wife's dying.
[29:09]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, look, he ruined Virginia. Take Virginia out of it. It's still creepy.
[29:13]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, Yeah.
[29:13]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, he's killed this child that he ruined. That's over. Look, let's move on from her. That's gone.
[29:18]
Dave Anthony
If you're dead. If your wife's dying, I could see, like, whatever people. Some people need to emotionally connect with somebody else. Keep it on the down low. That's a down low one.
[29:30]
Gareth Reynolds
Physically. Hand jobs only.
[29:32]
Dave Anthony
HJ's.
[29:33]
Gareth Reynolds
I don't think you can go further than that until she's gone.
[29:37]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Like, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna be too judgmental about someone whose wife is dying, because I think that's a very. I don't know what that's like. And that's a tough.
[29:45]
Gareth Reynolds
Yes.
[29:45]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. But the baby stuff.
[29:48]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. I think we can both agree Newt Gingrich handled it properly.
[29:52]
Dave Anthony
Properly. Thank you. He's happy right now.
[29:58]
Gareth Reynolds
That's what's sad. I know. That is the saddest part.
[30:01]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[30:01]
Gareth Reynolds
It's the. It's sad. It's sad that they're winning, that they won.
[30:05]
Dave Anthony
They're happy. It's an obvious public flirtation. Everybody realizes that Edgar writes glowing reviews of her writing. There are a lot of scandalous whispers in the literary world, like, everyone's fucking talking about this. And then comes Elizabeth Ellet. She is a writer, a serious Christian, and a big fan of Edgar's.
[30:28]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[30:30]
Dave Anthony
She has a reputation for being nosy, malicious. She was accused of stealing another woman's.
[30:36]
Gareth Reynolds
Poem, and plagiarism claims were rampant.
[30:40]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, this. Yeah. I mean, I think it's different then because, like, it's the only thing.
[30:47]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. And I would imagine that that's kind of what I was thinking is like.
[30:51]
Dave Anthony
You know, it's like there's no copyright, Right?
[30:55]
Gareth Reynolds
No copyright. But also just, you know, you're reading poetry, you're writing, you know, you're gonna have some crossover.
[31:00]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So this one was a guest in her house, and then she supposedly stole her poem and published it in her name.
[31:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, okay. That's different.
[31:08]
Dave Anthony
So she. Elliot goes to visit Virginia.
[31:11]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[31:12]
Dave Anthony
And I think she finds a letter while she's there. But anyway, she reads a letter written to Edgar from Osgood.
[31:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh.
[31:21]
Dave Anthony
And Elliot then goes. After that visit, she goes to Osgood and she tells her what she knows because she had found evidence in the house. Osgood freaks out. She tells Edgar she wants all of her letters back.
[31:37]
Gareth Reynolds
Osgood tells, oh, wow, Edgar.
[31:39]
Dave Anthony
Edgar gives them back. She is. He's furious now. And he warns Elliot. He. He's pissing Ella. And he warns Elliott that she needs to be worried about the letters she wrote to him.
[31:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, more letters.
[31:55]
Dave Anthony
I mean, this is just a mess.
[31:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[31:57]
Dave Anthony
This is the kind of shit that drunks get into, right? Yeah. One of Elliott's brothers threatens Edgar after he said that to her.
[32:07]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[32:09]
Dave Anthony
So he goes to a guy to ask for help. Edgar does, and it's a guy that he'd once accused of plagiarism and not being a good writer. And that guy hated Edgar so much that he had written villains that seemed that were basically Edgar in his works. Okay, so that's the guy he goes to for help.
[32:31]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep.
[32:32]
Dave Anthony
And he asked for a gun. He goes, I need a gun to protect myself.
[32:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Why is he going to him? Because he's not only guy he knows with a gun.
[32:39]
Dave Anthony
He's drunk, I think, like, okay, I don't think anything's working.
[32:42]
Gareth Reynolds
It's a lot harder to get a gun back then.
[32:44]
Dave Anthony
And the guy's like, no, I'm not going to give you a gun. And he goes, you should go apologize to Elliot.
[32:50]
Gareth Reynolds
I'd rather kill it.
[32:51]
Dave Anthony
The threat, right? Yeah, I'd rather. Yeah. So Edgar punches him in the face and then they get into a fight in the street.
[32:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. Probably going to show up in one of his works.
[33:00]
Dave Anthony
A bystander said Edgar was shit faced.
[33:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[33:03]
Dave Anthony
So this, all this shit that I'm talking about just causes massive gossip, Right?
[33:09]
Gareth Reynolds
It is a delicious scandal.
[33:10]
Dave Anthony
It's a great scandal. And Virginia finds out on Valentine's Day. She writes Edgar a poem begging for all the rumors to stop. What a great poem.
[33:22]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Honestly, you get that? Yeah. This was. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day. This is pretty negative, honestly. Oh, gosh.
[33:30]
Dave Anthony
This is called I love you. Please. My God, stop fucking around. I'm dying.
[33:33]
Gareth Reynolds
Please knock it off.
[33:36]
Dave Anthony
Edgar has also written a Valentine's poem.
[33:38]
Gareth Reynolds
Mine's a little different.
[33:39]
Dave Anthony
Well, it's for Osgood.
[33:41]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, okay. Great.
[33:42]
Dave Anthony
So very different.
[33:42]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep.
[33:43]
Dave Anthony
Yep. All of this leads to Edgar being ostracized by a lot of his friends.
[33:48]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[33:49]
Dave Anthony
The owners of the Broadway Journal leave, so the guys who have the other two thirds leave because Edgar's attitude and drinking, he's just a nightmare.
[34:00]
Gareth Reynolds
So now he's got to be his own editor for his own paper. Basically. That's why not.
[34:04]
Dave Anthony
Great one called him, quote, a drunken sot. And the most purely selfish of human beings.
[34:10]
Gareth Reynolds
It's not great.
[34:11]
Dave Anthony
He had total control now, but he's in debt.
[34:15]
Gareth Reynolds
He also. There's no way that'd be like me, you being like you do the dollop. And I'd be like, oh, boy. Oh, gosh.
[34:26]
Dave Anthony
He asked for money from friends and from magazine subscribers. He even goes to Griswold.
[34:33]
Gareth Reynolds
Hey, hey, buddy.
[34:35]
Dave Anthony
Hey, buddy. Remember I call you the C word.
[34:38]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, I still hate you, but there's more people I hate more. So you're my pal.
[34:42]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Let's get them. Fuck my wife, right? She's awful. Excuse me dying and stuff with her face.
[34:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[34:51]
Dave Anthony
But I met a new woman. She's like a little baby.
[34:55]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, gross. Stop it.
[34:56]
Dave Anthony
And stop talking.
[34:57]
Gareth Reynolds
I need.
[34:59]
Dave Anthony
Oh, I came from money for you.
[35:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Came from money for money. Okay.
[35:04]
Dave Anthony
I'm writing the Broadway Journal. Very prestigious.
[35:09]
Gareth Reynolds
I thought that was done printing prestigious magazine. What was the last issue?
[35:12]
Dave Anthony
I am in charge.
[35:13]
Gareth Reynolds
When was the last time there was an issue?
[35:15]
Dave Anthony
There is an issue. Every case of whiskey.
[35:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Right. Okay. Because it feels like most of us think that that publication's done.
[35:25]
Dave Anthony
So have you met my woman friend? She's a baby.
[35:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Which. No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing that. Nope.
[35:31]
Dave Anthony
She's a little baby.
[35:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Stop that. She's a 34 year old. But no, she can put on.
[35:40]
Dave Anthony
She put on.
[35:40]
Gareth Reynolds
No, no, no. A d. No. Stop it.
[35:46]
Dave Anthony
Anyway, can I have some money?
[35:47]
Gareth Reynolds
N. Honestly? A little bit.
[35:53]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Griswold ends up giving him $25.
[35:56]
Gareth Reynolds
I knew it.
[35:57]
Dave Anthony
It's crazy.
[35:58]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, you're just. It's like a shut the up fee.
[36:00]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, probably. So Edgar finally found someone to buy the Journal and keep him on his sole editor. I don't know. But after a few weeks, Egg was fired for being drunk.
[36:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[36:10]
Dave Anthony
So takes the family leaves New York in 1846 to get away from all the scandal, get Virginia into a healthier environment. So he rents rural property near the Bronx River.
[36:25]
Gareth Reynolds
Nice.
[36:26]
Dave Anthony
Well, back then it was a healthy environment, but now. Absolutely not.
[36:30]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, you get Bronx Kitis. I also love that he thinks that this is locate. These problems are location based.
[36:39]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, well, that's called. Do we talk about this? That's called pulling a jog by alcoholics. Where you. You have. You have all these issues and you're like, man, I gotta get away from all this. And you move and then you realize. And then it starts happening somewhere else and it goes, oh, you're the problem.
[36:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, there's a lot of that in many things. And there. That. That Whenever you hear about that, you're like, I feel like you can do that here. Like, I have friends who are like, yeah. Writers who are like, I gotta go to, like, the cabin. You're like, just.
[37:07]
Dave Anthony
It's not. Yeah, you can do it.
[37:09]
Gareth Reynolds
Do it at home.
[37:12]
Dave Anthony
So his mental health is not great. There are rumors that he is now insane. Finally, one friend reported his, quote, mental derangement, and another said he had brain fever.
[37:25]
Gareth Reynolds
Good one.
[37:26]
Dave Anthony
I love Brain fever.
[37:26]
Gareth Reynolds
That's a good one. That's a good way of putting it. Added so much. You have brain fever.
[37:30]
Dave Anthony
Wasn't that an ABBA song?
[37:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Brain Fever. Yeah, I think it was. I think that was a Bee Gees album. Saturday night. Brain Fever.
[37:38]
Dave Anthony
Edgar turned down speaking engagements, citing ill health, and he complained of, quote, being ground into the dust with poverty. Now, that's true. Look, I think the poverty stuff, you know, you really have to give it a lot of weight like that up that. You up. Being that poor. It fucks you up.
[37:56]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, he's all. He's successful and poor.
[37:58]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Which is probably worse than just being poor.
[38:00]
Gareth Reynolds
I would think that it would give you more of an edge.
[38:02]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So he's now finding it difficult to write. Although he did write some. Making fun of New York's literary.
[38:10]
Gareth Reynolds
How long until he writes the Raven, too? Starts sequeling your.
[38:15]
Dave Anthony
Oh, my God. If it was like, they probably didn't do that then, but if he.
[38:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, that'd be awesome.
[38:20]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. The Raven nine.
[38:22]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. The Raven was at the window wrapping away, saying, I'm getting a little too old for this.
[38:30]
Dave Anthony
The Raven needs money. God damn it. Nevermore.
[38:34]
Gareth Reynolds
The Raven had a monocle. Now, Foyle was his friend.
[38:43]
Dave Anthony
So he starts going after. He starts. He does write some about New York's Larry Figures. But he's just making fun of their looks. Like now he's gone after people's looks.
[38:51]
Gareth Reynolds
That is petty.
[38:53]
Dave Anthony
People love it, though. People fucking love. And the magazines are selling out. He made fun of women's lips. A woman's lips. He made fun of another woman's ugly nose. He said a guy quote, he is noticeable for nothing in the world except for the markedness by which he is noticeable for nothing.
[39:12]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow.
[39:13]
Dave Anthony
That is.
[39:13]
Gareth Reynolds
That is hurtful.
[39:15]
Dave Anthony
That is so good.
[39:16]
Gareth Reynolds
That is hurtful.
[39:17]
Dave Anthony
That is really good.
[39:18]
Gareth Reynolds
It's a little Brendan Chauvey.
[39:27]
Dave Anthony
But other writers didn't ignore his insults like Longfellow did. An editor and editor said Edgar had, quote, fewer angles than a pumpkin.
[39:37]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, I don't know. Not a carved one, I guess.
[39:39]
Dave Anthony
He published a Description of him as 39 years old, 5ft 1, with watery gray eyes, a tongue too big for his mouth, and a pointed chin that with his broad forehead made him. Made his head look like a balloon.
[39:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh my God. That is. That is hurtful. A balloon head and a tongue to make for his mouth.
[40:03]
Dave Anthony
I mean, the fun thing about this is we don't really get this today, but when people can write and they're fighting, it's pretty fucking great.
[40:11]
Gareth Reynolds
It is good.
[40:12]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[40:15]
Gareth Reynolds
You. There was a picture of him on the first ep, right?
[40:19]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. And people said. Some people said it looked like you, and some people said it looked like a combination of us.
[40:24]
Gareth Reynolds
That was hurt. That was hurtful. Now that I, I know how he feels. That was hurtful.
[40:28]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[40:28]
Gareth Reynolds
People are mean because he's not great looking and I am fantastic looking.
[40:38]
Dave Anthony
Other writers didn't. Oh, I already said that. So this, this, this particular description really embarrasses Edgar. And then he asks his editor friends to publish a more accurate description. So all of a sudden these other places are like, no, he's 5, 8, 33 and quite handsome, like he told them are dry.
[41:00]
Gareth Reynolds
And my head, then my head is not like a big balloon.
[41:03]
Dave Anthony
Steel blue gaze.
[41:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Yes. Perfect. Sexy. Shakespeare.
[41:09]
Dave Anthony
The guy Edgar got into the fistfight with in the street after he asked him for help.
[41:15]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[41:17]
Dave Anthony
He writes of all the times that Edgar asked him for money and he said he beat him in the fight, that Edgar was drunk when he canceled all of his lecture tours, and that Edgar plagiarized many writers, including his uncle.
[41:30]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, wow. So this, this, well, this makes me think there is plagiarism.
[41:35]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[41:36]
Gareth Reynolds
Because everything he's saying is true.
[41:39]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, well, maybe so. It's so brutal that some places refuse to publish it. They're like, this is actually a little bit too much. Griswold said he'd have, quote, sooner cut off my hand than used it to write such an ungentlemanly card, even though every word were true.
[41:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, wow.
[41:58]
Dave Anthony
Edgar wrote to people in Philadelphia to get details of any fights the guy had ever lost.
[42:09]
Gareth Reynolds
It.
[42:09]
Dave Anthony
What if Trump was a writer?
[42:11]
Gareth Reynolds
Truly, really, it's, it's really. It's like. It's beneath him. Yeah, but it's what he does. Yeah, this is all kind of beneath him.
[42:24]
Dave Anthony
So he challenges, he challenged the guy challenged Eggies. Well, sue me for slander then, if none of it's true. So Edgar doesn't and he wins $320.
[42:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Edgar does.
[42:35]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[42:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. Interesting. That's tough.
[42:37]
Dave Anthony
So the guy was. So he probably did not plagiarize.
[42:40]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[42:40]
Dave Anthony
I would imagine. And then also, I guess somebody beat.
[42:43]
Gareth Reynolds
Him in the fight or his head.
[42:45]
Dave Anthony
Doesn'T look like a balloon or whatever.
[42:46]
Gareth Reynolds
He's got as many angles as a pumpkin.
[42:49]
Dave Anthony
So Virginia is really in bad shape now. She's got a fever most of the.
[42:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Time shielding her from what he's out there doing. Like, how was. Yeah, how was it?
[42:59]
Dave Anthony
How was poetry today?
[43:00]
Gareth Reynolds
Good. Wrote some great stuff. Nobody's angry at me. Stayed totally sober, by the way. I'm going to go to court for the next couple weeks, but this is over some. Some guy's horse kicked.
[43:14]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Yeah.
[43:14]
Gareth Reynolds
So I got to get to court over that. But everything outside is going really wonderful.
[43:20]
Dave Anthony
Well, she's. She's like, on a straw mattress on the floor, using one of his old coats as a blanket. Surely that's really what she could get.
[43:32]
Gareth Reynolds
A little more than that.
[43:33]
Dave Anthony
Well, okay, so part of the thing about. Because we've all heard this a million times, that he, he, he. He drank away the money. Like it is costly to drink.
[43:45]
Gareth Reynolds
Sure. Yes. Yes.
[43:46]
Dave Anthony
So for sure he's spending some of that money that he could to buy her a blanket. I don't understand.
[43:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, I mean, honestly, we afford more straw. I mean, we live in a fucking barn.
[43:58]
Dave Anthony
They got their cat to sit on her chest to help warm her.
[44:03]
Gareth Reynolds
Ooh, boy. As a guy whose cat is on his chest all the time, that's not gonna pay the bills.
[44:11]
Dave Anthony
The dollop is brought to you by Rocket Money, which you don't know. You don't know what it is, so.
[44:16]
Gareth Reynolds
I've never heard of it.
[44:17]
Dave Anthony
But tell you right now. Ragamoney is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.
[44:28]
Gareth Reynolds
I thought it was just what you called it when Jeff Bezos was in one of his spaces.
[44:33]
Dave Anthony
No, Gareth, this is helpful and good. It's. It's pretty great. I. I used it to cancel some subscriptions, particularly stuff that my kid subscribed to that I didn't know about. Because, you know who can check? Your 90 state.
[44:46]
Gareth Reynolds
90 year old son.
[44:47]
Dave Anthony
Oh, that's just it. You're subscribing to so much stuff. Toothbrush. Okay, that's out. I know. I have a Toothbrush Crush subscription. And then the Rocket money also refinanced my.
[44:57]
Gareth Reynolds
My existence.
[44:58]
Dave Anthony
He said my Internet and got me a much better deal on my Internet.
[45:01]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[45:02]
Dave Anthony
So it's great.
[45:03]
Gareth Reynolds
It saves you to like to throw my hat in the ring to on how do we lower that cost? I. I love Rocket Money and everything I hear is great, but I would love to get involved and sort of get my.
[45:11]
Dave Anthony
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[45:46]
Gareth Reynolds
Talk to me, Daddy.
[45:47]
Dave Anthony
2025 is here. Did you know that? At least?
[45:49]
Gareth Reynolds
I refuse to recognize it.
[45:51]
Dave Anthony
And Mint Mobile has a resolution for you. Skip the gym, skip the fad diet. Skip the just nonsense resolutions that you're going to forget about by next month. I'm looking to put on anyway.
[46:01]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[46:01]
Dave Anthony
Instead, make a resolution to save some serious cash by making the switch to Min Mobile. That's right. And right now you can get half off their three month unlimited plan, which I did. And it's great. It's way cheaper than all the other ones. It's crazy how much more expensive.
[46:17]
Gareth Reynolds
They're enjoying themselves.
[46:18]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, they are. And so Min Mobile saves you a ton of money. It's the same. Just as good as any other. Like you would think. Well, it's cheaper, so it can't be as good. No, it's as good as the other companies. It's, they're, they're right there. There's no plus.
[46:32]
Gareth Reynolds
You're kahooting it with Ryan Reynolds.
[46:37]
Dave Anthony
It's not bad. So it's great. I was on. What do you call it? The pink one.
[46:43]
Gareth Reynolds
Drugs Molly phone company.
[46:45]
Dave Anthony
The pink one.
[46:46]
Gareth Reynolds
T Mobile.
[46:46]
Dave Anthony
T Mobile. I was on T Mobile and it's this, it's, it's as good as T Mobile. There's literally no difference.
[46:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[46:51]
Dave Anthony
Between it and T Mobile.
[46:52]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Plus you're not aligning yourself with Snoop Dogg.
[46:54]
Dave Anthony
I'm not aligning myself with Snoop Dogg. So it's great. I cannot recommend it enough. You get the data works, the phone works, the texting works. It's everything you want from a phone. Cheaper, cheaper. Way cheaper.
[47:07]
Gareth Reynolds
And you can bring your phone number.
[47:08]
Dave Anthony
You can bring your phone number.
[47:09]
Gareth Reynolds
You can use the same phone.
[47:10]
Dave Anthony
Use the same phone.
[47:11]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, they're, they're really, they're laughing at you when you don't make this. Everyone's laughing.
[47:18]
Dave Anthony
Everyone's laughing.
[47:18]
Gareth Reynolds
And it not laughing with you, at you. We're laughing at you. You really are having a gig. We're not doing Mint Mobile at your decision making.
[47:25]
Dave Anthony
So switch to Mint and new customers get half off an unlimited plan until February 2nd. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month and get the plan shipped to your door for free, go to mintmobile.com. that's mintmobile.com dollop. A $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on first three month plan only speeds slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. CMIT Mobile for details.
[47:57]
Gareth Reynolds
And if your own. If your old phone company starts messing around with you, get Rocket money, they'll cancel that for you. You know what I mean? These all. It's a whole ecosystem we're working with.
[48:07]
Dave Anthony
Muddy is beside herself. They're just. This is just shocking poverty. So some of the public becomes aware and they start getting donations to feed and clothe them.
[48:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Man.
[48:20]
Dave Anthony
So this has got to cause a new level of anger for him, right? Like, this is just embarrassing to him.
[48:24]
Gareth Reynolds
In the professional world.
[48:26]
Dave Anthony
He's thankful to get the money he does want. He doesn't want to take care of Virginia, but he's fucking embarrassed, right? On February 1st, 1847, Virginia dies at 24 years old.
[48:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow.
[48:36]
Dave Anthony
Boy, did she have a great life with her cousin lover, teen bride. I mean, then tuberculosis. It's all.
[48:45]
Gareth Reynolds
She probably was like, oh, thank God.
[48:47]
Dave Anthony
At least they didn't have kids. Well, he had 12 kind women from the literary and art scene. Helped get her a proper burial. And they bought morning clothes for Edgar to wear.
[49:01]
Gareth Reynolds
Can I wear him in the afternoon too?
[49:04]
Dave Anthony
Well, instead he wore the. The coat that Virginia had used as a blanket to her funeral.
[49:15]
Gareth Reynolds
Remind me again, how do you get tb?
[49:20]
Dave Anthony
It's through the air.
[49:23]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, it's through the air. Okay.
[49:25]
Dave Anthony
You can't get it from a coat.
[49:27]
Gareth Reynolds
I'd still be careful.
[49:28]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, but this is also an old coat he didn't use anymore. And then she was using a blanket, so it's an old, old coat that was then used as a blanket. And then he's like, well, I love her. And, like, wears it to the. He's so distraught and he gets very sick himself coat. He would go into the vault. The tomb. That vault. To her burial vault.
[49:55]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, no. What is with these? We need to lock.
[49:58]
Dave Anthony
And he would hold her body late at night. We can't have this going through the snow without putting his shoes on.
[50:04]
Gareth Reynolds
Christ.
[50:05]
Dave Anthony
He became so ill that people thought he was dying.
[50:07]
Gareth Reynolds
I think he is. I. We need to come up with a way for these men to not be able to touch the women in the vault.
[50:15]
Dave Anthony
Gentlemen, we really need to stop trying to have sex with our wives after they're dead.
[50:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Absolutely. Once we officially know that they're dead.
[50:23]
Dave Anthony
Or not being able to show the true affection that we would normally, as a healthy human being, show when they're. When they're alive, but only when they're dead. We.
[50:33]
Gareth Reynolds
Here's what we're saying. If your wife's in the vault, you can go in there and cuddle and you can.
[50:41]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, no. Oh, no, we're saying don't cuddle.
[50:44]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, right. Okay. So don't go in there and cuddle. That's a little coupley. What we're saying is if you got to go in there to kiss a couple more times before saying goodbye. Make it a Frenchie.
[50:55]
Dave Anthony
I don't think we're saying that. I don't think we're saying what we're saying.
[50:58]
Gareth Reynolds
What are we saying?
[50:59]
Dave Anthony
Once the. Once they're in the vault.
[51:01]
Gareth Reynolds
In the vault, you have to let.
[51:03]
Dave Anthony
It go and not go in there. It's time to move on.
[51:06]
Gareth Reynolds
If you're gonna go in there, finish the jab, make it a real bang.
[51:11]
Dave Anthony
I think we need a sidebar. And we will come back with our talk.
[51:15]
Gareth Reynolds
Yes. Because I think we're pretty much on the same. We're just trying to figure out what the position is.
[51:20]
Dave Anthony
Go into the vault.
[51:21]
Gareth Reynolds
Go in there.
[51:22]
Dave Anthony
Are you going into your dead wife's vault?
[51:24]
Gareth Reynolds
I absolutely am. We're having a baby. All right? Now that's the rule. Well, only sleep with the dead wife if you're going to do it for a new baby.
[51:35]
Dave Anthony
We have a problem because your wife and I are also having a baby.
[51:38]
Gareth Reynolds
That two timing corpse.
[51:41]
Dave Anthony
She is.
[51:41]
Gareth Reynolds
I knew she was cheating.
[51:43]
Dave Anthony
She is cold. You know what I mean?
[51:46]
Gareth Reynolds
She is freezing. Frigid. No, it's like banging a bag of peas.
[51:52]
Dave Anthony
But a black like hardened and black. And like her skin is like the pustuous. Yes. It's. It's. It's like the color of my belt buckle. I know. That would be silver, wouldn't it?
[52:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Hey, it's just good. Good to me to a cut, bro.
[52:12]
Dave Anthony
Don't talk to me anymore.
[52:13]
Gareth Reynolds
Wait.
[52:14]
Dave Anthony
And it's what to be called a cock, bro.
[52:16]
Gareth Reynolds
All right, so that should clear it up.
[52:20]
Dave Anthony
So, yeah, so he's hanging with her, but then he starts to get better. And he's got the money from the lawsuit, which helps. And he starts looking for a new wife. It's time to get out there and mingle.
[52:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Right. Who's not going to want to attach herself to this?
[52:35]
Dave Anthony
Well, first it was Jan Locke.
[52:37]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[52:38]
Dave Anthony
She's a fan from Massachusetts. And he started writing back and forth with her. But then he goes up. He's on a tour in Massachusetts, and he goes up to visit her.
[52:45]
Gareth Reynolds
This is the DMs.
[52:47]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. And he discovers she's married with five kids. So that's kind of a deal breaker.
[52:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Not for me. That's a deal maker.
[52:56]
Dave Anthony
But while he's there, he becomes interested in Jane's friend, Nancy Richmond.
[53:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[53:03]
Dave Anthony
Who's married, but without all the kids.
[53:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[53:06]
Dave Anthony
So Jane is now very jealous.
[53:08]
Gareth Reynolds
The woman with the five kids is jealous of her friend who's also married.
[53:11]
Dave Anthony
Yes.
[53:12]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[53:13]
Dave Anthony
So he writes to a woman named Helen Whitman, who is a critic. She's in Rhode Island. She has. She's had a crush on Edgar for a while. Who wouldn't? All the stories.
[53:23]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, yeah, no, he's got it all.
[53:24]
Dave Anthony
He's a man's man.
[53:25]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep. Absolutely.
[53:28]
Dave Anthony
And she wrote a Valentine's poem about him. So he sends her his famous poem, to Helen, which is written about his friend's mom that he was in love with when he was a teenager, which to me, doesn't seem great, especially because she's a critic. So you're sending her a poem about somebody else?
[53:46]
Gareth Reynolds
It's weird. It would be like. Well, it would be like, okay, someone slides into the DMs, and I'm like, hey, I can't wait to meet you. Here's. Here's a clip. Here's his clip. That did a mill.
[54:01]
Dave Anthony
Here's a bit that I did about my friend's mom when she's a teenager. But same name.
[54:07]
Gareth Reynolds
Here's my NFL commentator bit, but your last name's mentioned in it. What?
[54:14]
Dave Anthony
So she doesn't respond. And then he writes a new poem called Helen.
[54:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[54:18]
Dave Anthony
Which describes a dream he had about her.
[54:21]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[54:22]
Dave Anthony
And then he starts asking friends in Rhode island about details about her. Like, what's up with this?
[54:26]
Gareth Reynolds
This is also what's creepy. This is like, he's. Now he's. He's becoming a guy instead of Edgar Allan Poe. And it's a little sad.
[54:36]
Dave Anthony
He's. He's. He's on the hunt. And the only thing worse than a drunk, married Edgar Allan Poe is an on the hunt drunk.
[54:44]
Gareth Reynolds
Right? Yeah.
[54:45]
Dave Anthony
As we've learned so he somehow comes across his old teenage love. Remember the. He was engaged. She. The parents wouldn't let her. Let us through. She.
[54:55]
Gareth Reynolds
Ingrid or whatever.
[54:56]
Dave Anthony
Elmira.
[54:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Elmira. Okay.
[54:58]
Dave Anthony
Elmira Royster. He sees her in Richmond. She's now a wealthy widow.
[55:03]
Gareth Reynolds
Hello. Hello. And her parents are passed.
[55:08]
Dave Anthony
So many problems can be solved here.
[55:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[55:11]
Dave Anthony
So he's thinking about proposing again, but.
[55:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Then this time in person.
[55:16]
Dave Anthony
But then Muddy forwards him a letter from Helen. And that has a very flirty poem in it. So he bails and immediately goes to Providence and spends several evenings with Helen. And he would talk about Virginia to Helen, saying she wasn't smart enough.
[55:35]
Gareth Reynolds
She. I wonder why.
[55:39]
Dave Anthony
It's almost like.
[55:40]
Gareth Reynolds
I wonder why when you ruin this child's everything.
[55:42]
Dave Anthony
It's almost like when you take a child bride that they.
[55:46]
Gareth Reynolds
I'll be honest. Her maturity level was a bit questionable throughout the whole thing. Even though she died at 24 and I began dating her around 12.
[55:53]
Dave Anthony
So. One point, he takes Helen on a walk to a cemetery.
[55:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Mind if I.
[55:58]
Dave Anthony
It's time to go visit the crows and bodies.
[56:02]
Gareth Reynolds
You want to cuddle a corpse together?
[56:06]
Dave Anthony
He gets annoyed when she shows him a poem she wrote about her late husband.
[56:10]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. I don't need to see pictures of your ex. I'll be honest.
[56:13]
Dave Anthony
In the cemetery, it's all.
[56:14]
Gareth Reynolds
I'll be honest. I don't love it either.
[56:16]
Dave Anthony
But still, despite that right there. He proposes.
[56:19]
Gareth Reynolds
That's an interesting way to handle that.
[56:21]
Dave Anthony
I was going to do this anyway.
[56:23]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, I'm furious. Will you do this with me?
[56:26]
Dave Anthony
And he later wrote, her words about her late husband were still, quote, ringing in my ears. So it. Yeah. When he still asked her to marry him, but he was like, yeah. Besides an unmarked grave. He said he had never known love until now. Besides, they're at a graveyard.
[56:47]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[56:48]
Dave Anthony
She's flustered. She is. Like, I need time to think.
[56:52]
Gareth Reynolds
No.
[56:53]
Dave Anthony
So he goes back to New York and she promises she'll write him an answer. She wrote. And she explains all of her reservations. He's older, she has heart problems. Which heart problems are so bad. She. That means she can't have sex. It's too dangerous for her.
[57:10]
Gareth Reynolds
What?
[57:10]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Suspicious.
[57:12]
Gareth Reynolds
Don't worry. I'll wrap it up real quick.
[57:14]
Dave Anthony
That's why we got anal.
[57:16]
Gareth Reynolds
Don't worry about it. This won't be long.
[57:18]
Dave Anthony
Don't worry. You're just gonna take care of me.
[57:20]
Gareth Reynolds
I finish before I get inside. Just. You gotta pretend you will Let me.
[57:25]
Dave Anthony
Edgar wrote back. He's still going for it. He did none of that dissuaded. You know, he's. He's in. He promises no sexual demands during their marriage. And he asked for. He's like, I want an actual response, yes or no.
[57:37]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow.
[57:38]
Dave Anthony
She replies that she's heard things about his character.
[57:42]
Gareth Reynolds
Me. I have done nothing wrong over my time as a groan.
[57:46]
Dave Anthony
And it disturbs her.
[57:47]
Gareth Reynolds
What would name one thing I was.
[57:50]
Dave Anthony
That he had, quote, no principle and no moral sense.
[57:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. Yeah. That's very fair.
[57:56]
Dave Anthony
I'm a poet.
[57:58]
Gareth Reynolds
That's fair.
[57:58]
Dave Anthony
We live different.
[57:59]
Gareth Reynolds
I am a successful poet who has no money, and I sleep with lambs.
[58:05]
Dave Anthony
Edgar wrote back that that's all wrong. And he had many enemies because they were jealous. And his dedication to honesty in his critiques.
[58:12]
Gareth Reynolds
When are you gonna understand? Everyone's crazy but me?
[58:15]
Dave Anthony
People come at me, good Lord, I am the right one. Everyone else is wrong.
[58:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Do you understand?
[58:22]
Dave Anthony
Are we gonna do this or what?
[58:23]
Gareth Reynolds
Come on.
[58:26]
Dave Anthony
He then goes to Massachusetts to visit Nancy Richmond.
[58:30]
Gareth Reynolds
Right? So he. This is the problem with. She's right to not want to get involved with him. Because anytime something seems like it's off, he's in. He's trying to, you know, get with someone else.
[58:40]
Dave Anthony
That's right. Now he tells Nancy he doesn't like her name, and he convinces her to start going by Annie.
[58:48]
Gareth Reynolds
So you're much more of an Annie.
[58:50]
Dave Anthony
She starts going not just with him, but with everybody. She starts saying, I'm Annie now. So she's Alpha rocker.
[58:56]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. That's a weird. Okay. Oh, I love everything about you. Can you go by Annie, please?
[59:05]
Dave Anthony
Okay.
[59:07]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, good.
[59:08]
Dave Anthony
You're special.
[59:09]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, now that that's over, we can really be together. Annie. Okay, Annie. Any.
[59:15]
Dave Anthony
Stop saying it.
[59:16]
Gareth Reynolds
My little Any Bear.
[59:17]
Dave Anthony
I have to go.
[59:18]
Gareth Reynolds
What's your favorite part of being called Annie?
[59:23]
Dave Anthony
Hearing it from you.
[59:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Let's get that birth certificate.
[59:32]
Dave Anthony
She and Edgar held hands, looking into the fire at night. She's married. Her wealthy husband doesn't know this because he's always away on business. Or he just doesn't notice. Pope biographer Kenneth Silverman said Edgar's interest in Annie, quote, threatened neither adultery nor divorce. Being childlike and desperate, he saw her as a caretaking, angelic sibling, a replacement for Virginia.
[59:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Holy fuck. So he really. He. He's not even looking for love in the traditional way. He just wants to be taken care of. Or he wants to be.
[60:03]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, it seems like he's asexual.
[60:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[60:06]
Dave Anthony
And he wants someone to love him.
[60:08]
Gareth Reynolds
But he wants, like, a sister, daughter, mother.
[60:11]
Dave Anthony
Maybe he can't handle physical contact because of all the trauma. Like, he's really fucked up. Yeah. Right.
[60:16]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, you said in the first one that there. There's rumors he's impotent.
[60:20]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. He was John.
[60:23]
Gareth Reynolds
We should exhume him and try to figure it out.
[60:25]
Dave Anthony
I agree. Or just hold him. Like, give him. Finally give it to him. Love he needs.
[60:30]
Gareth Reynolds
We took Edgar out of the ground and got him hard so that can be put to bed.
[60:35]
Dave Anthony
He was drawn primarily to married women or women he could never have. He's maybe repulsed or scared by the sex in marriage. Yeah. So think about. All these women are a ways away. They're not in New York. They're all a distant. The one he does have in New York is like a baby.
[60:52]
Gareth Reynolds
A friend who is attracted to those complicated situations.
[60:57]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[60:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Like. Likes that. Where it's, like, taken, or she's looking, or they're on the rocks or something. Like, he likes that.
[61:05]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Before leaving Richmond, he made Annie promise he. She'd visit him the day he was on his deathbed. That's a. I mean, that's exactly what I did with my wife.
[61:17]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep.
[61:18]
Dave Anthony
So I'm gonna take off now.
[61:19]
Gareth Reynolds
All right. See you later, honey.
[61:20]
Dave Anthony
When I am dying. What's on the bed? I want you to come say hello.
[61:26]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[61:27]
Dave Anthony
Just say hi.
[61:28]
Gareth Reynolds
I don't.
[61:31]
Dave Anthony
Say yes on my deathbed. Just say you'll come.
[61:36]
Gareth Reynolds
I will visit you when you're dying.
[61:38]
Dave Anthony
Thank you. It's going to be really soon.
[61:40]
Gareth Reynolds
It was a great time.
[61:45]
Dave Anthony
He then went straight to Rhode island to see Helen, but spent the night weeping in his hotel room instead.
[61:51]
Gareth Reynolds
I love those nights. If I have an off night on the road, that's normally what I'm doing. I do laundry and just have a real weep.
[61:59]
Dave Anthony
Definitely not drinking.
[62:00]
Gareth Reynolds
No, no, no, no. Absolutely. Yeah.
[62:04]
Dave Anthony
The next day, he bought 2 ounces of a laudanum and took a train to. And he wrote to Annie saying he'd be on his deathbed soon.
[62:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Don't worry, you can come say bye.
[62:16]
Dave Anthony
Bye.
[62:18]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm on a lot of laudanum and on a lot of Amtrak.
[62:21]
Dave Anthony
So he takes one of the two ounces of laudanum. This is like 30 doses of morphine.
[62:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God.
[62:28]
Dave Anthony
It's a lot.
[62:29]
Gareth Reynolds
He's gone.
[62:30]
Dave Anthony
And then the plan was to swallow the rest when Annie got there.
[62:34]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, he really wants to go.
[62:36]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, he wants.
[62:37]
Gareth Reynolds
This is a.
[62:37]
Dave Anthony
With her there.
[62:38]
Gareth Reynolds
This is a genuine attempt at.
[62:40]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, He. He's. He's trying to invite. To permanently scar a woman to his.
[62:46]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[62:46]
Dave Anthony
And what. So here's a flaw in the plan.
[62:50]
Gareth Reynolds
I Didn't know it was going to happen.
[62:51]
Dave Anthony
Next week, he takes the ounce of laudanum and he's got a letter that he's going to mail to tell her to come. He's sent. Or it must be sent by, because how could it.
[63:00]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[63:01]
Dave Anthony
So he's got a letter that he's going to send her, but he miscalculated the dose. He doesn't know how strong it is, so he can't mail the letter. So over two days, he experienced, quote, horrors in getting the drug out of his system. But he does survive.
[63:16]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow.
[63:18]
Dave Anthony
I mean, it seemed like a great plan.
[63:20]
Gareth Reynolds
You mail the letter, then you take the ounce.
[63:22]
Dave Anthony
Yes. He goes back to Rhode island and Helen agrees to meet with him and he asks her to marry him again and then, you know, come live in New York with him. She doesn't answer.
[63:33]
Gareth Reynolds
No. Nor should she.
[63:35]
Dave Anthony
The next day, he calls upon her again at her home. She said friends told her that a marriage with him was full of evil portents.
[63:46]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my gosh. First of all, what is portents?
[63:50]
Dave Anthony
I don't know what that word means. Secondly, it's not actually a raven.
[63:54]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm full of good portents.
[63:56]
Dave Anthony
Yes.
[63:57]
Gareth Reynolds
For the record, happy man. Great portents. Oh, my Lord.
[64:03]
Dave Anthony
She had read letters.
[64:04]
Gareth Reynolds
I am so sick of your friends crapping on my portents.
[64:07]
Dave Anthony
Really?
[64:08]
Gareth Reynolds
Seriously, I am a. The. I have some of the best portents.
[64:11]
Dave Anthony
I am poor.
[64:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Mm.
[64:17]
Dave Anthony
She had read letters describing his poor character. So Edgar leaves. He's very sad now.
[64:22]
Gareth Reynolds
He goes to some other woman.
[64:23]
Dave Anthony
He spends the night at his hotel bar and writes a farewell letter to Helen saying if they met again, they would do so as strangers. Fuck off, woman. How dare you. He included a lock of his hair. Also, this. Also. Here's part of my body.
[64:42]
Gareth Reynolds
Like, even if you're making a good point, then to be like. And also, in closing, I've attached some hair.
[64:50]
Dave Anthony
The next morning, Helen finds him in her home.
[64:55]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God.
[64:56]
Dave Anthony
Screaming.
[64:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God, I want my hair back.
[64:59]
Dave Anthony
He's screaming that he needs her to save him.
[65:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God.
[65:03]
Dave Anthony
Which is a great sign. This. Oh, my God, ladies, this is what you want.
[65:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God.
[65:08]
Dave Anthony
It scares her.
[65:10]
Gareth Reynolds
What part of it to her wasn't great?
[65:11]
Dave Anthony
I don't know. She said she'd never heard anything so awful in her life.
[65:16]
Gareth Reynolds
God.
[65:17]
Dave Anthony
But this is a guy who's passionate about you.
[65:20]
Gareth Reynolds
No, listen, I know he has weird ways of showing it, but this guy's super into you.
[65:27]
Dave Anthony
She hides in her room for two hours as her mom and sister yell at Edgar to get out.
[65:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, fuck.
[65:33]
Dave Anthony
Finally, she comes down after two hours. He's screaming for two hours. And Edgar says, she is an angel.
[65:41]
Gareth Reynolds
Hi, honey. What'd you hear?
[65:45]
Dave Anthony
And she says he wouldn't. She would now be deciding his fate.
[65:50]
Gareth Reynolds
He says that?
[65:51]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, right. This is great. This is how you get a lady. You say, I'm going to kill myself unless you come with me.
[65:57]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[65:58]
Dave Anthony
He clings to her so tightly that he ripped the cloth off her dress.
[66:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, dear. Have I over hugged again? Oh, gosh.
[66:08]
Dave Anthony
I guess it's a crime.
[66:09]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm sorry that I took the cloth off with my love.
[66:13]
Dave Anthony
Too huggy. Too much love for you. They call a doctor. A doctor.
[66:20]
Gareth Reynolds
Doctor's like, so what the fuck? No, I think you need the cops.
[66:24]
Dave Anthony
God. I like the raven, but now I kind of get it more.
[66:26]
Gareth Reynolds
Hello, doctor.
[66:29]
Dave Anthony
He says Edgar has cerebral congestion.
[66:32]
Gareth Reynolds
That's right.
[66:33]
Dave Anthony
My back stuffy, he'd say he's taken to rest and he regains his senses days later.
[66:41]
Gareth Reynolds
So he is in a good place mentally.
[66:44]
Dave Anthony
You know, it could be because now we've added laudanum in, but, you know.
[66:47]
Gareth Reynolds
Not a great addition.
[66:48]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. This guy's a mess. And still Helen and Edgar do not end their courtship.
[66:55]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God. Would you even call it that?
[66:58]
Dave Anthony
I don't know what it is. It's abuse.
[67:00]
Gareth Reynolds
But she's like, the next day just be like, well, thank God that's over. Well, we're not broken up. Broken up.
[67:08]
Dave Anthony
Not completely.
[67:09]
Gareth Reynolds
We're not. I'm not gonna shut the door yet.
[67:11]
Dave Anthony
There's still some good.
[67:12]
Gareth Reynolds
He's a pretty good man. Plus, I want to get that cloth back.
[67:16]
Dave Anthony
I love his balloon head.
[67:17]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, gosh.
[67:19]
Dave Anthony
Helen consented to a conditional engagement.
[67:22]
Gareth Reynolds
That's not good. That's like. That's what an engagement is.
[67:26]
Dave Anthony
He has to stop drinking.
[67:27]
Gareth Reynolds
No.
[67:29]
Dave Anthony
And her mom has to give a consent to the marriage now it's on the mom.
[67:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, it's also a huge.
[67:36]
Dave Anthony
Put it on the mom.
[67:37]
Gareth Reynolds
He's going to say that he'll stop.
[67:38]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. But he's still got to convince the mom. And the mom, hopefully, is just like, absolutely not. I don't know. So he goes. He goes to New York. He's conditionally engaged now.
[67:49]
Gareth Reynolds
It's like a third of a ring on.
[67:53]
Dave Anthony
Then someone sent more rumors to Ellen, and her mom went into a, quote, frenzy of hatred for Edgar. So whatever that's like. I mean, this is. He's made so many enemies that people are now. Yeah.
[68:07]
Gareth Reynolds
But it's also not good that she's Done. Sound like she's going to consent.
[68:12]
Dave Anthony
Well, also, the other thing about this is. Is as soon as she said yes, Edgar is kind of over it.
[68:17]
Gareth Reynolds
That's how that happens too.
[68:19]
Dave Anthony
And he writes a love letter to Annie. Yeah. So now he's writing both Annie and Helen. Trying to get Annie excited for when they can live together or near each other without. Without being married or even giving up her husband. Just being around each other.
[68:33]
Gareth Reynolds
The idea that Helen has lowered her standards to this level and is like, I will. And then he's like the old ball and chain. You know how women are. They get attached so easy. Am I right, Bruce?
[68:47]
Dave Anthony
Ladies. To Helen, he writes.
[68:49]
Gareth Reynolds
Can't live with them. Can't mail a letter to tell him to come visit you on your deathbed when you're halfway through your laudanum D OD.
[68:57]
Dave Anthony
He's still into marrying her and to ignore the rumor she's hearing. And he made steps to marry Helen. He keeps visiting her. He's telling others that he. The marriage will never take place. So he's going there. He's playing the planning. Planning the wedding going forward. The wedding. And the whole time he's like, let's not have this one. Come on.
[69:19]
Gareth Reynolds
She's all about it.
[69:21]
Dave Anthony
She's making preparations to move into Edgar's home. He visits on a Saturday, and they agree to get married on a Monday. I don't know what happened with the mom here, but there's no way the mom was doing. Was.
[69:32]
Gareth Reynolds
No, that probably got dropped.
[69:34]
Dave Anthony
So Edgar sends a public notice to the papers and announcements.
[69:38]
Gareth Reynolds
We are getting married, but I'm not excited about it.
[69:42]
Dave Anthony
It's writing in two different papers.
[69:44]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, right.
[69:44]
Dave Anthony
I'm getting mad. To a beautiful woman. This shrew.
[69:47]
Gareth Reynolds
She won't leave me alone.
[69:50]
Dave Anthony
Oh, God. It's just. This is. Okay, so he sends notice to papers, but during that weekend. So Saturday, they agree they're gonna marry on Monday. But during the weekend, someone gives Helen another note attacking Edgar. She's getting these letters now from all over the place, like they're coming from everywhere. Helen confronts Edgar. Not. Not at all moved by his pleading. She soaks a handkerchief. He. She soaked a handkerchief in either ether and put it to her mouth and said, I love you, then passed out on the couch.
[70:25]
Gareth Reynolds
She did that to herself.
[70:27]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[70:28]
Gareth Reynolds
I didn't know that was an option. She.
[70:33]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, she was like.
[70:35]
Gareth Reynolds
She's like self. Chloroformed.
[70:36]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. So she's not in the greatest mental state either.
[70:42]
Gareth Reynolds
Bye. I'm gonna go nappies now.
[70:46]
Dave Anthony
So now the Mother throws Edgar out and the marriage is off.
[70:49]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. And I'm sure he's really upset about this marriage he didn't actually want to have.
[70:53]
Dave Anthony
He keeps writing love letters to Annie, calling her the only woman in the world who understood him. Oh.
[70:58]
Gareth Reynolds
She's like, I don't. I don't understand you.
[71:01]
Dave Anthony
But she's upset by the broken engagement news and her husband more so. So they're like, what the fuck is up with this guy? The husband is not even paying attention.
[71:12]
Gareth Reynolds
He doesn't know he's being cheated on, basically, but he's not being cheated on. I mean, whatever you call it, emotionally friended.
[71:17]
Dave Anthony
He's also annoyed by all the letters that Edgar is sending to Annie. So Annie breaks off their friendship and she says she's heard about his drinking. So now he's been broken up by.
[71:29]
Gareth Reynolds
Two women who want nothing to do with him, who he's sort of in love with, but also not.
[71:34]
Dave Anthony
So what are you doing this rehab? Well, what you do is you go to Annie. I mean, you go to Helen and you ask Helen to write to Annie.
[71:43]
Gareth Reynolds
What the fuck?
[71:44]
Dave Anthony
And say, I've done nothing wrong, so.
[71:47]
Gareth Reynolds
I've been cheating on you. Will you tell the mistress that I'm actually way better than she thinks? What the is he doing? He's out of control.
[71:59]
Dave Anthony
So good. For some reason, Helen didn't do that.
[72:02]
Gareth Reynolds
She was like, no, that's a bad idea.
[72:04]
Dave Anthony
What?
[72:05]
Gareth Reynolds
No, no, no. But I've been, like, seeing her kind of the whole time with you, and I've been telling her I've been lamenting you to her. Will you write her a letter and tell her and her husband that I'm normal?
[72:16]
Dave Anthony
Help a bro out.
[72:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Good Lord.
[72:20]
Dave Anthony
Now, Edgar blames the women of the literary community for his situation. So he's decided that all the letters that the women are getting trying to.
[72:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Cancel me, they're coming to cancel me. I'm getting canceled.
[72:32]
Dave Anthony
So now his writing suffers. He wrote some well known works like Annabel Lee and the Bells, but also passed off old pieces as new ones. He even stole work from other writers. Finally, he reviewed other authors again.
[72:46]
Gareth Reynolds
This one's called the Crow.
[72:48]
Dave Anthony
He's like, he's double reviewing things. Yeah, he falls. He falls ill. He blames it on his depression. Nothing cheers me or comforts me. My life seems wasted. The future looks a dreary blank.
[73:00]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, totally.
[73:01]
Dave Anthony
Money tries to help him, but she's also depressed and wish they were, quote, both in our graves.
[73:08]
Gareth Reynolds
That's not who you want your sponsor to be.
[73:10]
Dave Anthony
Then 21 year old writer and a huge fan, Edward Howard Norton Patterson offers to fund Edgar's magazine Vision.
[73:19]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, God. Remember that?
[73:21]
Dave Anthony
That was from the first. Remember that was from the first.
[73:24]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. He was.
[73:25]
Dave Anthony
He was trying to get his own magazine going.
[73:26]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. He changed the name.
[73:27]
Dave Anthony
Getting funding, getting money and then not starting it.
[73:30]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah.
[73:30]
Dave Anthony
So this guy rolls in and he's like, I will fund you. You're the best.
[73:33]
Gareth Reynolds
I am the best. By the way, this is the worst decision you've ever made.
[73:40]
Dave Anthony
Edgar would have total editorial control. They'd split the profits. So Edgar says, called the players club. He would go visit this guy in Illinois. Muddy starts selling everything they own to pay for the trip. Before going west, he's going to do a little. He's going to do a little tour to visit some of the women who had rejected him.
[74:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Kind of like a suck it tour.
[74:08]
Dave Anthony
But then he becomes sick while he's in Philadelphia and there's a cholera epidemic there.
[74:12]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[74:14]
Dave Anthony
He tells Muddy he's sick, but he had actually been taken to prison for public drunkenness.
[74:23]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay. So he says that he's kind of cholera ish, but in reality he got thrown in the slam because again, he's an out of control alcoholic.
[74:33]
Dave Anthony
Yes. He was seen walking around the city in one shoe hallucinating. Once, random men behind him on the train were talking about murdering him. So he was. No, that's not true. He was made. It was all in his head.
[74:48]
Gareth Reynolds
So I had to give him one of my shoes.
[74:50]
Dave Anthony
Let's kill that poet. Kill the poet. In prison, he hallucinated that. The guards forced him to watch them mutilating money. He wrote to her and told her they needed to die together. That's a nice thing to get from your nephew. What's it, dude? Stop trying to die around ladies.
[75:07]
Gareth Reynolds
I had a dream that they cut you up. We gotta die together.
[75:11]
Dave Anthony
This whole thing's just fighting.
[75:12]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm gonna start offering that.
[75:13]
Dave Anthony
He's gonna find a woman to die.
[75:14]
Gareth Reynolds
I want to die. I'm looking to die with you. Either wants women to come to his deathbed to talk to him, or he's like, let's die together. Let's pick a date.
[75:24]
Dave Anthony
I want to scar you one way or the other.
[75:26]
Gareth Reynolds
When do you want to die? Maybe July.
[75:29]
Dave Anthony
He stays with a friend in Philadelphia who was so worried about him he wouldn't give him a razor to shave.
[75:35]
Gareth Reynolds
And that's the hero of the story.
[75:37]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Eventually he gets it together and he goes to visit Nancy Richmond on July 14, 1849.
[75:46]
Gareth Reynolds
She's got the five kids.
[75:49]
Dave Anthony
She's the friend of the five kids. He turned on friends invitations to go out because his clothes were so old and worn. And he was. He's a hometown celebrity. He would often do readings of the Raven. He gave paid lectures. He saw his sister, but was annoyed she always wanted to hang out.
[76:08]
Gareth Reynolds
Jesus Christ.
[76:09]
Dave Anthony
And he made fun of his sister's clothes.
[76:11]
Gareth Reynolds
The guy who can't go out because of his clothes, like, she's real ragged.
[76:15]
Dave Anthony
But now he's got some money because he started. The hometown is saving him 600 waistcoats. She told a friend, quote, edgar could never love me as much as I do him because he is so far above me.
[76:28]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow.
[76:29]
Dave Anthony
So this Patterson guy, the guy who wants to fund the magazine, gives him $50 to get the it going. The stylist, he's going to get it going. He goes to Elmira and proposes.
[76:42]
Gareth Reynolds
Which one's Elmyra?
[76:43]
Dave Anthony
The one he was engaged to. And he was a teen. And then the parents.
[76:47]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, right, right, right. Okay. This is teen Intercepted. Right.
[76:50]
Dave Anthony
Widow.
[76:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Yep. Rich widow.
[76:52]
Dave Anthony
He proposes and she laughs.
[76:56]
Gareth Reynolds
Is that good? No.
[76:58]
Dave Anthony
But he keeps going back and reading poetry to her and break her down. He wear her down. He worked, worked her. And after a bit, she begins to take him very seriously as a suitor.
[77:12]
Gareth Reynolds
That is a foolish mistake.
[77:13]
Dave Anthony
She admitted she was extremely jealous when she'd seen him with Virginia.
[77:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Okay.
[77:19]
Dave Anthony
Her kids, for some reason, don't like Edgar.
[77:21]
Gareth Reynolds
What do you think it is?
[77:21]
Dave Anthony
I don't know.
[77:23]
Gareth Reynolds
Because he has it all.
[77:24]
Dave Anthony
He has everything.
[77:25]
Gareth Reynolds
He's together. He's handsome, artist. He's sober, he's creative.
[77:29]
Dave Anthony
Yep.
[77:30]
Gareth Reynolds
He takes a lot of laudanum and ends up in jail seeing people in his life mutilated.
[77:34]
Dave Anthony
These are all good.
[77:35]
Gareth Reynolds
He wants to die with her.
[77:36]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. All good things.
[77:37]
Gareth Reynolds
He's about to start a magazine that I'm sure won't get off the ground.
[77:42]
Dave Anthony
Edgar joined the Sons of Temperance Society, vowing to never drink alcohol again.
[77:47]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, this fucking guy.
[77:49]
Dave Anthony
Though he'd already gotten drunk twice. When in Richmond. Visiting.
[77:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Right.
[77:52]
Dave Anthony
Almost dying one time.
[77:53]
Gareth Reynolds
Sure.
[77:54]
Dave Anthony
Edgar wrote to Muddy that he bought a wedding ring for Elmyra, but said if they married, he'd need to, quote, be somewhere where I can see Annie. I want to live near Annie.
[78:06]
Gareth Reynolds
So he really has it. I don't know. Like, it's really weird, it. To be trying to lock women into your nightmare. And also already before the relationship's off the ground. Really, it's weird.
[78:25]
Dave Anthony
That's.
[78:25]
Gareth Reynolds
That's, like, crazy.
[78:27]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. The. He then wished Annie's husband was dead. He also told money all was going.
[78:35]
Gareth Reynolds
Well with his wedding plans if Annie's husband died. That would be great. Also, this wedding is going to be awesome.
[78:45]
Dave Anthony
I mean, he. He's the one thing. He. He was charming. So that's why a lot of this is happening.
[78:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Because that's hard to believe.
[78:52]
Dave Anthony
I know it is. But there is a charm to him. So in his next letter, he said, quote, my heart sinks at the idea of this marriage.
[79:01]
Gareth Reynolds
What the is he doing?
[79:03]
Dave Anthony
He's doing it for money.
[79:04]
Gareth Reynolds
He is? Yeah.
[79:05]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. He's gotta be.
[79:06]
Gareth Reynolds
But he liked her a long time ago. It's more than that, probably. He's just. He's just. His brain is toast.
[79:12]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he write. So then Elmyra writes to Muddy. Edgar asked her to. To say she looked forward to one day being family. And then he goes to visit New York on September 27, and he writes that he and Elmira had reached a, quote, partial understanding and hoped to marry her when he returned. Okay, so that day, a printer named Joseph Walker found Edgar in a Baltimore tavern, incredibly drunk, barely conscious. And Edgar mumbles that he knew an editor named Snodgrass. So this guy Walker is a. He's in the business, so he recognizes, you know, this famous guy. And Edgar's like, I know. I'm Snodgrass. And Walker's like, that's. I work for Snodgrass.
[79:59]
Gareth Reynolds
You shut the up. You don't know me.
[80:04]
Dave Anthony
I didn't say I did.
[80:05]
Gareth Reynolds
You did. Jared, when you first walked in here, I said.
[80:08]
Dave Anthony
I said I knew Snodgrass. I work for Snodgrass. I know him.
[80:11]
Gareth Reynolds
I know a man named Snodgrass. That's why I said, little town you're living in. What's your name? What is your name, please?
[80:20]
Dave Anthony
My name is. My name Police.
[80:22]
Gareth Reynolds
So you're a cop, are you?
[80:24]
Dave Anthony
No.
[80:25]
Gareth Reynolds
Wait. Who sends you Snagras?
[80:27]
Dave Anthony
I'm not.
[80:28]
Gareth Reynolds
Come here. Come here.
[80:31]
Dave Anthony
Are you touching me? I don't want you to touch me.
[80:33]
Gareth Reynolds
I want to marry you.
[80:34]
Dave Anthony
I don't. I'm. What? Okay, that's not legal. We're guys.
[80:38]
Gareth Reynolds
Who sends you? Please?
[80:39]
Dave Anthony
What?
[80:40]
Gareth Reynolds
Who sent you?
[80:42]
Dave Anthony
No, I just came in because I saw. I saw.
[80:44]
Gareth Reynolds
How did you know that I was in here the whole time?
[80:46]
Dave Anthony
I didn't. I came in here to drink.
[80:48]
Gareth Reynolds
I came in here to drink.
[80:50]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, it's a saloon.
[80:52]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, my God. That is so crazy.
[80:55]
Dave Anthony
It's not.
[80:56]
Gareth Reynolds
We should mentor. Meet my friend named Snodgrass for you. You're gonna like this guy. You're a hell of a guy. I want you to be the best man at my wedding. But I can't get tied down. I love Annie too much.
[81:11]
Dave Anthony
Okay.
[81:11]
Gareth Reynolds
We should kill our husband.
[81:13]
Dave Anthony
I'm gonna kill myself.
[81:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Then do it with me. Together tonight. Snaggrass Snodgrass. You and me, snaggrass. The charm is. Charm is fine.
[81:28]
Dave Anthony
It's not.
[81:28]
Gareth Reynolds
And it gonna look a Blair boy. Get away from me. Who are you?
[81:38]
Dave Anthony
So the guy calls Snodgrass. They find Edgar slouch in a chair with a quote, vacant stupidity. Look, he's in dirty clothes that don't fit and they are not his clothes obviously.
[81:49]
Gareth Reynolds
I got these. I got these off a boy.
[81:54]
Dave Anthony
They get eggers uncle to come down. They're estranged and the uncle doesn't help him. He just calls for a carriage to take Edgar to the hospital.
[82:02]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh my God.
[82:04]
Dave Anthony
So Edgar has no idea where he was. He spent the night drenched in sweat. Sweat, Delirious, hallucinating and talking to imaginary objects on the walls.
[82:13]
Gareth Reynolds
They're not even on the walls. That clock was very important to my recovery. There's no clock there.
[82:20]
Dave Anthony
The next day the doctor suggested Edgar could be cared for by his friends. And Edgar replied, quote, the best thing his best friend could do would be to blow his brains out with a pistol.
[82:32]
Gareth Reynolds
This guy is asking to leave a.
[82:34]
Dave Anthony
Goes back into delirium.
[82:36]
Gareth Reynolds
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got.
[82:38]
Dave Anthony
To dip back into my psychosis screaming and yelling again.
[82:41]
Gareth Reynolds
I'm gonna go back down the lava tube and shout at the devil for a little while. I'll be back for macaroni in a bit.
[82:47]
Dave Anthony
Okay. They straight into the bed. He's just ranting. He calmed down a bit. Then he said, lord help my poor soul and died.
[82:56]
Gareth Reynolds
Oh, wow. Great last words. We talk about it on the show.
[83:00]
Dave Anthony
40 years old.
[83:00]
Gareth Reynolds
Great. Four. He lived. Oh, I was gonna say for a four year old.
[83:04]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, four.
[83:05]
Gareth Reynolds
Four years old. He really packed it in.
[83:08]
Dave Anthony
His death has been widely speculated on then and now. Alcohol poisoning, syphilis, mercury poisoning, rabies, suicide.
[83:14]
Gareth Reynolds
Rabies is a great contestant.
[83:16]
Dave Anthony
Some think he was the victim of cooping.
[83:18]
Gareth Reynolds
Cooping?
[83:19]
Dave Anthony
Now we've talked about cooping before. Cooping is when gangs working for a politician kidnap someone, get him very drunk and force them to vote over and over again. Because it was an election day and he was found near a polling place.
[83:32]
Gareth Reynolds
I don't buy the cooping. Yeah, well, he was self couping.
[83:36]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, I mean it's probably. It's probably like this guy that was just convenient. Like how much longer was he going to live the way he was?
[83:42]
Gareth Reynolds
He was getting drunk all the. Every day was election day. Cooping is doing him a lot of favors by being like, we think some people got him drunk. It's like, are their names Edgar, Allen and Poe?
[83:55]
Dave Anthony
So there's no definitive answer for how he died. So people have all kinds of. His funeral was the next day, paid for by a strange family, friends and acquaintances. Only eight people attended the three minute long service.
[84:09]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, that guy was like, I have a 1245. All right, look, this guy was drunk a bunch and one all really here. Pretty reads. Anyone want to say anything? No. Maybe we start the lowering. Hallelujah, he has gone. Hallelujah. Thanks everybody.
[84:26]
Dave Anthony
Thanks for coming out.
[84:27]
Gareth Reynolds
Bye.
[84:28]
Dave Anthony
Money and Amara. Muddy and Elmyra had not been told of his death yet. Muddy was overcome with grief. She went to stay with Edgar's beloved Annie for a while. I just.
[84:37]
Gareth Reynolds
She's like.
[84:38]
Dave Anthony
Like what in the. She's.
[84:39]
Gareth Reynolds
I actually tried to get him out of my life repeatedly. My husband's freaked out. I know you two loved. He spoke of you so often.
[84:48]
Dave Anthony
Money just wants to survive, right? She's like just poor. Yeah. Money would bounce around friends houses for a while, often annoying them or overstaying her welcome. Until she died in a home for poor women. She had signed power of attorney to Rufus Griswold, who Edgar had chosen to be his literary executor when they were on good terms. Wow.
[85:10]
Gareth Reynolds
So he didn't and changed the paperwork in a while.
[85:12]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, yeah, he didn't. Yeah. Griswold published his obituary. It began quote, edgar Allen Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will start startle many, but few will be grieved by it.
[85:26]
Gareth Reynolds
Wow. What the fuck. You got to pretend eulogies where you.
[85:29]
Dave Anthony
Pretend he obituary slandered Edgar.
[85:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, you got to pretend. Yeah. Obituary, that's where you pretend now.
[85:36]
Dave Anthony
He accused him of not only being a drug addict, but being dishonest, distrustful, a paranoid man who often walked the streets mumbling. Griswold then published a biography of Edgar, saying he was expelled from university for gambling and he was a hysterical drunk with no friends. Many who knew Edgar strongly disagree with Griswold's biography. But that became best known and the image most people have of Edgar Allan Poe. Today, friend and editor George Lippard published his own obituary. Quote, as an author, his name will live while three fourths of the bastard critics and mongrel authors of the Present day go down to nothingness and night.
[86:15]
Gareth Reynolds
That's how you do it.
[86:16]
Dave Anthony
And the men that now spit on his grave by way of retaliation for some injury which they imagine they receive from Poe. Living will do well to remember that it is only an idiot or coward who strikes the cold forehead of a corpse.
[86:32]
Gareth Reynolds
I mean, it seems like a lot of the guys in the story loved a cold forehead of a corpse.
[86:38]
Dave Anthony
Yeah. Artists.
[86:39]
Gareth Reynolds
What a crazy little life that is, right? Yeah, that's crazy. That is so.
[86:46]
Dave Anthony
I mean, that's. That's a guy, you know, tortured by everyone, dying early. You know, everyone died around him when he was young.
[86:54]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, but even then, I mean, in that era, like a lot of people died early. It's also that relationship with the dad, with his. With John, his dad. That was so brutal. And. But even then, that is. That behavior is predetermined in a way that is like.
[87:13]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, the.
[87:14]
Gareth Reynolds
There's combinations of environment that maybe make you turn out like that, but that is incalculably bizarre.
[87:21]
Dave Anthony
Yeah.
[87:21]
Gareth Reynolds
And sad. And sad.
[87:23]
Dave Anthony
Up. And he's up. He's a up Weirdo.
[87:25]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah. Tortured artist.
[87:28]
Dave Anthony
Research done by Brittany, but at least.
[87:29]
Gareth Reynolds
His legacy as a football team.
[87:31]
Dave Anthony
That's right.
[87:32]
Gareth Reynolds
That's pretty cool.
[87:34]
Dave Anthony
I didn't think about that, but yeah.
[87:35]
Gareth Reynolds
That had a murderer on it.
[87:37]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, I didn't think about that.
[87:38]
Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, because he died in Baltimore.
[87:40]
Dave Anthony
Yep.
[87:40]
Gareth Reynolds
So they were like. So some. Why not Some owner was like drunk lunatic who wanted to kiss corpses and marry a bunch of ladies.
[87:49]
Dave Anthony
Still better than the commanders.
[87:51]
Gareth Reynolds
Well, yeah. By the way, the fact that those. That they're a game away from the super bowl and Dan Snyder didn't want to sell that team is just, oh.
[88:01]
Dave Anthony
They'Re probably going to win it all. Brittany Cohen Brown did all the research.
[88:06]
Gareth Reynolds
Thank you, Brittany.
[88:07]
Dave Anthony
Edgar Allan Poe sources. Edgar Allan Poe, A Mournful and Never Ending remembrance by Kenneth Silverman. A Mystery of Mysteries. The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dowdziak. Edgar Allan Poe is Life and Legacy by Jeffrey Myers and Quoth Raven. More More by Molly Langmuir, which was in New York magazine.
[88:32]
Gareth Reynolds
Boy, oh boy. That is. That is absolutely wild. What a. What a drunk. Alcohol really can do some fucking damage.
[88:41]
Dave Anthony
It's not great.
[88:43]
Gareth Reynolds
It's weird. It's like the desire to drink kind of starts to vacate you a little bit as you get older and older.
[88:49]
Dave Anthony
Yes.
[88:50]
Gareth Reynolds
But if it doesn't, those people who hang on, you're like, wow, that is.
[88:54]
Dave Anthony
It's. Yeah. It's considered a progressive disease and it.
[88:58]
Gareth Reynolds
Really can make you psychotic.
[88:59]
Dave Anthony
Yeah, I mean, you can fuck you up.
[89:03]
Gareth Reynolds
When your dad and I were drinking on that last day.
[89:05]
Dave Anthony
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
[89:07]
Gareth Reynolds
It was really crazy to see what he was talking about. He loved you. Yeah. His last day of drinking together. He. He really? Well, first of all, things turned a little nasty late at night.
[89:23]
Dave Anthony
It's really hard to do a podcast. I mean, I'm locked in business wise with a man who killed my father.
[89:29]
Gareth Reynolds
I didn't kill him. I barely knew him. I didn't kill your dad. I loved your dad, but I didn't know him. And I never met him. But that last day was wild. Oh, you like this podcast, do you? Then you're gonna love me on the road, doing stand up. Go to garethreynolds.com if you are in Richmond Heights, Missouri. St. Louis. Let's be honest. January 7, January 8. Indianapolis, Batavia. Batavia, someone said online. Illinois, January 9 through the 11th. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. January 12, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 15 through the 18th. Then I'll be in Buffalo, New York on January 30. Rutherford, New Jersey, January 31 through February 1. Brea, California. February 7, Eureka, California. February 11, San Francisco. February 12, Sacramento. February 13, Naples. March 24, Charlotte, North Carolina. April 13. April 14, I will be in Raleigh, North Carolina. Virginia Beach. April 15, Richmond, Virginia, April 16, Lutherville, basically Baltimore, I think. April 17, 18th, 19th, 19th. It cuts off there. And Winnipeg this summer in May. Go to garethreynolds.com for tickets and information. You're the gear force. We need you. Gare Force. Hashtag, Air Force, Gareforce.