The Experiments of Edgar Allan Poe

Visit the Museum: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.

Lecture: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

Edgar Allan Poe is usually thought of as a fantasist, more at home in the realm of imagination than the world of fact and reason. Yet many of his tales of mystery and the grotesque show the impact of the scientific and technological discoveries of his day.

This talk will reveal a lesser-known side of Poe. After being expelled from Jefferson's University of Virginia, Poe received some of the best scientific training available at the time as a cadet at West Point. He later worked as an early science journalist, reporting and evaluating new discoveries and inventions to readers curious about the universe and hungry for novelty. Poe took special pleasure in debunking scientific hoaxes, such as the Chess-playing Turk, and even more in inventing his own.

Poe's writings share his age's enthusiasm for Natural History and the classification of specimens (gold bugs and others); for electricity, magnetism and mesmerism; and for theories about the origin and destiny of the solar system. The obsession of many of his best-loved tales is nothing other than the exploration of the power and the limits of calculation and reason.

Poe invented and contributed to new, scientifically-influenced literary genres--the detective story and science fiction. This talk will consider the literary experiments of this singular author, in both familiar and lesser-known works, as a reflection --and critique--of a society being transformed by science and industry.

John Tresch is Assistant Professor in History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Romantic Machine: Technology and Metamorphosis in Paris, 1821-1851 and is currently working on a book on Poe and American Science.