Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. Poe was one of the earliest short story writers, considered to have invented detective fiction, and an early contributor in the newly emerging genre of science fiction.
He was born Edgar Poe to an acting couple in Boston. Tuberculosis took both parents before he was 3. The Allans of Virginia became his foster parents and although they never adopted him Allan was added to his name.
He met and fell in love with a neighbour, Sarah Royston. She was 15. He was 16. Her father disapproved so they were secretly engaged before Poe went away to University. Her father intercepted their letters so that both thought the other had abandoned them. His foster father did not provide him with enough money to take all of his courses and eventually gambling debts and school fees forced him to leave University. He parted ways with John Allan when he declared his ambition to be a poet and writer.
Poe couldn’t return to Richmond after he learned about Sarah’s marriage so he wandered various cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York working for literary journals and periodicals.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” was published in a Christmas literary annual in 1842. It wasn’t until 3 years later that his poem, “The Raven,” made him a popular sensation.
After his death a literary rival published a spurious biography whose legacy has persisted in its portrayal of Poe as a depraved, drunken, drug-addled lunatic.
Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton (1810 - Feb 1888)
They met and fell in love in 1825. She was 15. He was 16. Her father disapproved but they got secretly engaged anyway. When Poe went to University her father, considering the orphaned Poe a poor prospect, intercepted all their letters. Thinking he had forgotten her, Sarah married Alexander Shelton, a businessman from a well-to-do Virginia family. After she was widowed Poe came back for her and, despite family objections, they made wedding plans but he left on a trip and never returned. Poe sought to publish “Annabel Lee” along with the announcement of their wedding for October 17 in local newspapers, indicating the poem’s connection to Elmira. However, Poe died on October 7, 1849, and the poem was published with his obituary instead. She never remarried and became a social recluse until her death on February 11, 1888.
THE STORY
“The Pit and the Pendulum” was first published in a Christmas literary annual in 1842. 180 years ago. Unlike many of Poe’s stories it does not have supernatural elements. It describes the torments suffered by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, although it is sparse on historical accuracy. Critical reception has been mixed. Inspired by 3 separate stories, Poe created a Pit, a Pendulum, and closing walls to terrorize his prisoner. The realism invoked by his words came under criticism by William Butler Yeats who dismissed it as: “an appeal to the nerves by tawdry physical affrightments.” Which is the very thing our film emphasizes.
