Edgar Allan Poe : Portrayal in the Media: an Annotated Bibliography of Edgar Alla Poe as a character

Black Plume : The Suppressed Memoirs of Edgar Allan Poe



Madsen, David. Black Plume : The Suppressed Memoirs of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980.


This is written as if Poe had written the story of his life in respects to his time with Virginia Poe, his wife.  It starts off with a letter from Maria Clemm to the editor informing him that she had found this manuscript after Poe's death, written by Poe before his death.  It is all written as a first person novel, not as a journal so much because there is a fair amount of dialogue. Virginia calls Poe, Buddie.  At some point there is a murder and the book takes on a detective story type feel. It ends with Virginia's death and news of the murder case. The last part is a letter from the editor to Maria Clemm, thanking her for sending the manuscript, but they had no use for it.


The style is a more happier side of Poe becasue a lot deals with his love for his wife.  The second half is more of Poe's detective story side as opposed to his macabre side.  


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