T he Acc ident a l Sout her ner By Nan Gra ham

By na n gr a h a M One truth about the South can be found in Truman Capote’s famous quote: “All Southerners go home sooner or later . . . even if it’s in a box.” So too, I believe, it is true that once in the South, Northerners — or those from someplace else, as I call them (to avoid the Y word) — become “Accidental Southerners.” Even if here temporarily, they are profoundly and sometimes unconsciously affected by the haunting strangeness of our part of the world.

One such person is E dgar A llan Poe. T hough bor n in Boston in 1809, Poe traveled the Souther n theater circuit w ith his actress mother, Elizabeth, dow n the E aster n Seaboard f rom Nor folk to Charleston. She may have even played at T ha lian Ha ll in Wilming ton. I like to imag ine toddler E dgar and his siblings in tow back stage. L ater, the or phaned E dgar g rew up in R ichmond, Virg inia, w ith foster parents, the A llans. T hough New England bor n, Poe a lways considered himself a Souther n gentleman.

A st udent in the first class at the newly opened Universit y of Virg inia under its founder and president, T homas Jef ferson, Poe was a good st udent but a w retched gambler. His foster father’s ref usa l to pay of f his gentleman’s debt (a ser ious v iolation of a gentleman’s code of honor) resulted in the young Poe being ousted f rom the universit y. He event ua lly joined the A r my, ser ved in South Carolina as a pr ivate, then ret ur ned to college at West Point.

His career at West Point was as br ief as that at U VA. First semester he received 44 of fenses and 106 demer its. His second ter m shows a lack of improvement: In only a month he managed to accumulate 66 of fenses. A nd the final straw? T he stor y goes that E dgar A llan Poe showed up for “a dress parade wear ing only his car tr idge belt . . . and a smile.” T he incident remains undocumented, but persists to this day, perhaps because it’s a g reat and hilar ious anecdote.

Mr. A llan lef t the impover ished E dgar out of his w ill despite hav ing lef t a sizeable inher itance to his illeg itimate son . . . a son he never met.

Poe’s contr ibution to A mer ican literat ure cannot be discounted as a mere w r iter of hor ror stor ies. His impact on A mer ican let ters is major. His is the first authentic A mer ican voice among the young countr y’s other w r iters whose work s were, for the most par t, pa le imitations of Europe’s literat ure. He is the first or ig ina l A mer ican author and the first w idely famous Souther n author.

A mong his accomplishments, Poe w rote the first detective stor y (and detective, Inspector Dupin) in “T he Murders in the Rue Morg ue,” inventing the genre we are addicted to even today. His ratiocination (what a word!), a method of solv ing a myster y by log ica l deduction and reason, cleared the path for Sir A r thur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Chr istie’s Miss Mar ple.

Poe was the ver y first A mer ican literar y cr itic. He was a lso an early developer of the shor t stor y for m. “T he Pit and the Pendulum” and “T he Tell-Ta le Hear t” remain classics.

W hy his claim (and mine) that he is a Souther ner, despite his Boston bir th? Mother Elizabeth had the good sense to die in R ichmond and thus sea led Poe’s fate to be brought up a Souther ner. R eared by his foster family in R ichmond, he a lways considered himself a Virg inian.

Women have been long idea lized in the South, and few w r iters have been more obsessed w ith women than Poe. He lost his mother, w ife and foster mother to t uberculosis. According to Poe, the death and loss of a beautif ul woman was the most elevated of a ll subjects for poetr y and literat ure. We see this theme repeatedly in his work s: “A nnabel L ee,” “T he Fa ll of the House of Usher,” “Berenice” and “T he R aven.” T he w r iter’s focus on ly r icism and lang uage usage is a lso ver y Souther n.

Much has been w r it ten on Poe’s sense of place, famous in Souther n literat ure. His set ting for “T he Fa ll of the House of Usher,” in the phantasmagor ica l and swampy tar n, could be the low countr y South at its creepiest. Poe k new the Carolina low countr y. His shor t stor y “T he Gold Bug” is set in Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, where he was stationed as a soldier — an island which today spor ts names like R aven Dr ive and Goldbug Avenue to honor the poet.

My last reason that Mr. Poe is rea lly a Souther ner? He mar r ied his first cousin when she was 14. I won’t even touch that one! PS

Af t er 25 y e ars of b roa d c a st ing comm ent ar i e s for Wilming t on’s PBS st a t ion, 40 -plu s y e ars of t e a ching, an d auth or ing tw o bo ok s, st or y t elling is st ill a pa ssion for Nan Grah am.

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