Edgar Allan Poe's journey to Russia: fiction and reality

Tetenova Mariya Aleksandrovna Postgraduate student, The Higher School of Translation and Interpreting, Moscow State University 119234, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, building 51 tetenova.mariia@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Edgar Allan Poe is today an indisputably recognized classic not only of American literature in general, but also of the world's "horror literature", horror literature full of secrets, psychologism and a special atmosphere peculiar only to him. Unfortunately, E. Poe did not manage to see such recognition during his lifetime, which we know from all the obituaries, posthumous notes, biographies commissioned by him, written before the end of the XIX century. But fiction, as it turned out, came from the pen of the American not only in his fiction stories - even his biographical notes turned out to be full of mysteries.

So, in 1841, Edgar Allan Poe, then a particularly unknown writer, wrote a note at the request of his (let's say in advance — only in his opinion) friend Rufus Griswold, in which he talks about himself and his life path. It was then, for a mysterious reason, that Po created a legend about his stay in Russia and his incredible luck that allowed him to escape. This fiction will truly become a legend, because according to all the laws of the genre it will be passed from mouth to mouth – from one work to another.   

What Poe writes: "Since Mr. Allan refused to repay my debts of honor, I ran away from home without a single dollar in my pocket and went on a quixotic expedition to the Greeks fighting for freedom. Having failed to get to Greece, I got to St. Petersburg, in Russia. There he faced many difficulties, but was saved thanks to the kindness of Mr. G. Middleton, the American consul in St. Petersburg. He returned home unharmed in 1829." (translated by S.L. Fokin) (eng. orig. Mr. A. refused to pay some of the debts of honor, and I ran away from home without a dollar on a quixotic expedition to join the Greeks, then struggling for liberty. Failed in reaching Greece, but made my way to St. Petersburg, in Russia. Got into many difficulties, but was extracted by the kindness of Mr. H. Middleton, the American consul at St. P.) [Poe 1841] Charles Baudelaire writes a voluminous preface to the 1856 edition of Histoires extraordinaires, parrying Griswold and creating a new portrait of Poe, but quite different: an unrecognized and misunderstood genius, who had the misfortune to be born in a "country without an aristocracy": "it is difficult to think and write calmly in a country with millions of rulers, in a country where there is neither a capital, strictly speaking, nor an aristocracy" (our translation is author's note) (French orig. "qu'il doit ?tre difficile de penser et d'?crire commod?ment dans un pays o? il y a des millions de souverains, un pays sans capitale ? proprement parler, et sans aristocratie, <...>) [Poe 1856: p. 10]

The image of an unknown, frightening, huge and distant country, we believe, worked properly for Poe's reputation as a mystical and unusual person. Griswold placed this note in his work "Poets and Poetry of America" (English orig. "The Poets and Poetry of America"), which was published in 1842 and made the author famous for the next two decades. [Meyers 1992: p. 126] So in 1849, when Rufus Griswold already had a famous name and 5 more anthologies of a similar plan (Gems from American Female Poets (1842), The Poets and Poetry of England in the Nineteenth Century (1844), The Poets and Poetry of England (1845), Prose Writers of America (1847), The Female Poets of America (1848)), then there was no chance for his obituary to go unnoticed. The devastating article first appeared in the New York Tribune newspaper right on the day of Poe's funeral, October 9, 1849, and was later reprinted in other newspapers around the country: "Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends; and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars.» [Quinn 1941: 642-695]

In his desire to demonstrate how much Poe was a scoundrel, Griswold turned to everything: he even compared Poe to the hero of The Caxton Family, citing an entire paragraph of Bulwer-Lytton's text: "Passions in him united many of the worst feelings that only interfere with human happiness. It was impossible to contradict him, because he instantly flew into a rage; whenever you talked about wealth, his cheeks turned pale from the envy that consumed him. The amazing natural virtues of this poor boy – his beauty, his willingness to do anything, the audacious spirit that seemed to breathe around him like a fiery aura – turned his natural self–confidence into arrogance, and the desire to arouse admiration into prejudice against him. Impatience, envy are bad qualities, but not the worst in his case: his whole character, in addition to all of the above, was fanned by a cold, repulsive cynicism, and his passions resulted in ridicule of others. There was not the slightest empathy or sensitivity to morality in him; and, even more remarkable for a proud nature, he had little or no understanding of what honor was. He had to a painful excess that desire to rise above others, which is popularly called ambition, but there was no desire to receive respect or love from other people; only a rude zeal to succeed–not to shine, not to serve, but to succeed in order to have the right to despise the world, which irritated his vain nature." (our translation is author's note) (English orig. «Passion, in him, comprehended many of the worst emotions which militate against human happiness. You could not contradict him, but you raised quick choler; you could not speak of wealth, but his cheek paled with gnawing envy. The astonishing natural advantages of this poor boy — his beauty, his readiness, the daring spirit that breathed around him like a fiery atmosphere — had raised his constitutional self-confidence into an arrogance that turned his very claims to admiration into prejudices against him. Irascible, envious — bad enough, but not the worst, for these salient angles were all varnished over with a cold repellent cynicism, his passions vented themselves in sneers. There seemed to him no moral susceptibility; and, what was more remarkable in a proud nature, little or nothing of the true point of honor. He had, to a morbid excess, that desire to rise which is vulgarly called ambition, but no wish for the esteem or the love of his species; only the hard wish to succeed — not shine, not serve — succeed, that he might have the right to despise a world which galled his self-conceit.») [Griswold 1849]

E. Poe was not lucky enough to bequeath the task of collecting his works and publishing a collection of works to him, his sworn friend. So, in 1850, a collection of Poe's works was published, preceded by the note "Memoir of the Author", full of fictions, lies and slander: in it Griswold calls Poe a drug addict, an alcoholic, an "evil" person. According to Joy Bayless, Griswold's biographer, this is how the writer takes revenge on the already deceased Poe for publicly criticizing and ridiculing his articles and works. [Bayless 1943: p. 75] Jeffrey Meyers puts forward another reason: he suggests that the reason for such fierce hatred could be their competition for the location of the poet Frances Sargent Osgood in the late 1840s. [Meyers 1992: p. 209] Osgood was a friend of Griswold and exchanged complimentary publications with him, but Griswold presented letters to the world as proof of all his accusations – only they turned out to be fakes, this was later proved more than once by various scientists, for example, in the "Critical Biography" of Arthur Quinn. [Quinn 1941: p. 644] Finally, in correspondence with Sarah Helen Whitman, Poe's "dying" fiancee, he speaks bluntly about his attitude towards him: "I was not his friend, just as he was not mine." (our translation is author's note) (orig. eng. I was not his friend, nor was he mine) [Quinn 1941: p. 651]

Nevertheless, let's return to the question that we are particularly interested in: a passage about traveling to Russia. Griswold included him in his biography of Poe, which, unfortunately, subsequently sold out in large numbers and for a long time was considered to be a reliable (and perhaps the only) source of information about the life of E. Poe. As a result, this image of Poe, which Griswold carefully wrote out, took root: an unreliable drunkard, gambler and drug addict who lost all the money and died in a ditch under unclear circumstances.

As we know, the legend of such a disgusting character of Poe, as Griswold wrote him out, lived for at least another 20 years. [Campbell 1933: p. 77]. The opus about Edgar Poe was reprinted from newspaper to newspaper: the Richmond newspaper Whig of September 28, 1850; the October issue of the Knickerbocker newspaper of 1850; the December (1850), January and February (1851) issues of the Democratic Review; the January issue of the Westminster Review of 1852; the April issue of Tait's Magazine 1852; Chambers' magazinethe Edinburgh Journal of February 26, 1853; Gilfillan's Third Gallery of Portraits for 1854; the North American Review for October 1856; the June issue of Fraser's Magazine in 1857; the April issue of the Edinburgh Review in 1858 and so on. Killis Campbell discusses the reprinting of Griswold's obituary in detail in her book "The Mind of Poe and Other Studies" in the chapter "The Poe-Griswold Controversy".

Charles Baudelaire, who later became the guarantor of the recognition of Edgar Poe's talent in the world, was no exception and also read Mr. Griswold's opus. His reaction, however, was polar – in the preface to the publication of translations of E. Poe's texts, he defeated the negligent chronicler, not constraining himself in expressions exactly the same way Griswold was not shy in them: "That is, there is no law in America prohibiting dogs from entering cemeteries?" (our translation - author's note.) (French orig. Il n’existe donc pas en Am?rique d’ordonnance qui interdise aux chiens l’entr?e des cimeti?res ?) [Poe 1856: 9] Charles Baudelaire's preface deserves a separate study, because in 4 chapters Baudelaire not only denies Griswold's right to talk about the late Poe in such a tone, but also writes a new personality of Poe, which will later replace the image proposed by the American biographer and become a new leitmotif. It is this preface that will become the first text to appear in Russia, and since Baudelaire will not deny (or confirm) the passage about Russia in his biographical information about Poe, this legend will follow further – to Russia.

The legend continued to exist: at first in magazines in which anonymous translations were published, and then in comments on translations by famous scientists and poets: S.A. Andreevsky's commentary before the translations of the Philosophy of Creativity and The Raven, Brockhaus and Efron's Encyclopedic Dictionary of 1898, the second volume of translations by K. Balmont (1895), review by A. Blok (1906), article by A. Yaromalinsky (1916) and so on. Finally, already in the XX century, A.N. Nikolyukin turned to the archive of Ambassador Henry Middleton, stored in Moscow, and accurately established that such a name did not appear in any records of the ambassador – at that time, American researchers had already proved on the basis of documents that he could not be in Russia, because he served during the mentioned period of time in the army, however, under a different name – Edgar A. Perry. [By 1970: p. 693]

Nevertheless, despite the fact that Poe, as proven, had never been to Russia, his texts still reached Russia – and even in the XIX century, and the questions of how and which texts of Edgar Allan Poe got to Russia, how the history of the translation of his work began, are of particular interest. For the first time, Poe's name is heard in Russia not before translated stories or poems, and we would like to highlight this curious and very mysterious story about the first publication about E.A. Poe in Russian, because it was ... an essay by S. Baudelaire "Edgar Poe, his life and his works" (fr. orig. "Edgar Poe, sa vie et ses ?uvres"), who later gave E. Poe worldwide fame with his translations. S.L. Fokin and A.P. Urakova write in detail about this story in the preface to the collective monograph "Poe, Baudelaire, Dostoevsky: The Brilliance and Poverty of National Genius", addressing the recognition not received during his lifetime to N.I. Sazonov, a Russian publicist who lived in France, who knew both K. Marx and A.I. Herzen. N.I. Sazonov became a kind of the same guide for Poe to Russia as Baudelaire was for Poe. However, Sazonov's merits do not end there, because he will become such a guide for Baudelaire. So, at the very beginning of 1856, N.I. Sazonov, under the pseudonym Karl Stahl, published in the St. Petersburg "scientific and literary" magazine "Otechestvennye Zapiski" a translation of S. Baudelaire's poem "Le Cr?puscule du matin" ("Morning Twilight") into Russian, while "Flowers of Evil" had not even been published yet in France itself. In addition, in the same "Domestic Notes" his article entitled "The latest poetry in France, Italy and England" was published, dated as follows: "Paris, December 30, 1855." As part of the article, Stahl-Sazonov presented the French original of the poem "Le Flacon" (translated – "Bottle"), also not yet published in France [Stahl 1856]. "Flowers of Evil" will be published in France only in 1857.

The unfair deprivation of N.I. Sazonov's fame as a translator in the Russian environment is absolutely unjustified, because even in France Sazonov found his recognition in the books of the most famous researchers. So, in 1996, Adrian Wanner, a Swiss Slavist and literary critic, studied Stahl's article in the framework of the monograph "Baudelaire in Russia" (trans. "Baudelaire in Russia"), which is a kind of synthesis of many previous articles, which in total allows you to create the widest coverage of the material. [Wanner 2006]. The surnames "Sazonov", however, do not appear in the publication, although the names of Stahel and Sazonov were already "connected" at that time: in the 1947 edition of Baudelaire's Correspondence, Jacques Crepe, a tireless researcher of French literature and the son of Jerzen Crepe, a friend and connoisseur of Baudelaire's work, emphasizes in the notes that the present Karl Stahl's name is Nikolai Sazonov [Baudelaire 1947: 17]. Jacques Crepe's father deserves special attention, because, being a contemporary, friend and admirer of the poet's work, he spent 20 years collecting all Baudelaire's letters, notes and other documents, which in 1887, 20 years after the author's death, he published under the title "Personal Diaries and Correspondence" (our translation – author's note.) (original French Journalaux intimes et des correspondences).

Jacques Crepe collaborated with his young colleague, and later the most famous specialist in the works of Baudelaire – Claude Pichois. As part of their collaboration, in 1952 they published Baudelaire's unfinished pamphlet Pauvre Belgique, an essay against the Belgians, Belgium and especially Brussels, written during his trip there in 1864. There were many reasons for such anger: Baudelaire found himself in Brussels, fleeing from his creditors, and he had plans to hold 5 public lectures and find Albert Lacroix, Hugo's publisher, with whom he wanted to negotiate the publication of his works. Nothing of the planned, however, goes as it should: the first 3 conferences turn into a fiasco, the other 2 are canceled, and Lacroix refuses to accept Baudelaire, so the latter holds a grudge against all Belgians in general. The first excerpts from the work were published posthumously in 1887. [Rodenbach 1887] The entire work was published in 1952 as part of the complete works, compiled directly by Claude Pichois and Jacques Crepe. The name of Stahl-Sazonov also appears in the edition of Baudelaire's correspondence prepared under the direction of Claude Pichois as part of the prestigious publishing series "La Pl?iade". [Baudelaire 1952] In the same edition, a "review" of the poet from the Baudelaire entourage, Theodore de Banville, is given: Russian Russian gentleman, courteous man and charming writer, who in the last years of his life, spent in Paris, became a friend of all the local wits, whom he regaled with inimitable Russian salads" (translated by S.L. Fokin – author's note) (French orig. Sasonoff ?tait un Russe de bonne noblesse, aimable homme et charmant ?crivain qui, pendant les derni?res ann?es de sa vie, qu'il passa ? Paris, fut l'ami de tous les hommes d'esprit et leur faisait manger des salades russes qu'on n'a pas r?ussi ? imiter.) [Baudelaire 1973: p.1033].

Later, by the 150th anniversary of the publication of "Flowers of Evil" in France, a critical anthology was published, compiled by the largest expert on French literature of the XIX century, Andre Guillot, in which he managed to bring together all critical notes, reviews and reactionary statements of any form dated from 1855 to 1905. Stahl-Sazonov took the second (chronologically) place. [Guyaux 2007: p. 1058]. 

The history of Sazonov and Baudelaire's acquaintance is studied in detail in the works of S.L. Fokin, presented in the framework of the scientific application "The Republic of Literature. France in the World Intellectual Culture", in an article in the collective monograph "Charles Baudelaire & Walter Benjamin: Politics & Aesthetics". Thus, we are witnessing a story where, without the participation of at least one of the listed characters, E.A. Poe would have remained unknown to the Russian public.

As part of the research, we have attempted to recreate the long and ornate path along which E.A. Poe's work came to the Russian reader: through devastating obituaries, the advocacy of Charles Baudelaire in his forewords, their "exclusive" translations into Russian, which were published before the originals in French. After studying the biography of E.A. Poe, which he proposed himself during his lifetime, we compared it with the established legend about his life, written out by R. Griswold in the obituary, which allowed us to boldly assert the birth and strengthening of the myth of Poe's personality, which destroyed his already poor reputation. The image of the "bad" man, condemned by all, however, became perhaps the key characteristic that attracted S. Baudelaire, who later defended him and wrote a fateful preface to a collection of his translations of his stories. In a large text entitled "Edgar Poe, sa vie et ses ?uvres", S. Baudelaire defeated the wicked Griswold and restored justice to the late "genius", as he called Poe. Russians Russian publicist N.I. Sazonov, who lived in Paris, will subsequently get this preface, who will translate it into Russian and publish it in a Russian magazine – this will be the first publication about Edgar Poe in Russia.

Special attention should be paid to the passage about the trip to Russia, which E. Poe wrote in his biographical note given to Griswold during his lifetime. This passage will be found in all texts about Software up to the 1870s in American texts, in Russian–speaking ones until the 20th century.

E. Poe's work undoubtedly went through many instances and vicissitudes to be published in Russia. To do this, it seemed as if a puzzle of many details had been formed, dozens of conditions had to be met, starting from the blatant obituary of Griswold, reprinted hundreds of times in the United States, which would later outrage Baudelaire, who, by the will of fate, learned about the American writer, who did not gain fame, or even recognition from his friends, ending with the fashion for everything French in Russia, which will ensure not only interest in any art popular in France, but also the opportunity to be printed. It is thanks to this that N.I. Sazonov manages to publish his translations of the preface by S. Baudelaire, which, even if it was not an independent work (which, probably, literary critics can argue), but played a crucial role in opening the way for E.A. Poe's work in Russia. Finally, N.I. Sazonov's translation will precede the appearance of translations of software texts in Russian magazines, which will become the first symbols of interest in the figure of the mysterious American. Later, this interest will find its expression in the study of Poe's biography, but from a special angle: Russian writers and poets who translated Poe will associate the legend of Poe's stay in Russia with both the Decembrists and with zeal to participate in the revolution, as another English-speaking poet, Byron, once did.

The results of our work can serve as a basis for in-depth studies of any of the stages of the dissemination of E. Poe's creativity. Studying the importance of the dialogue of cultures on the example of popularization of Poe's creativity can become one of the research prospects.