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The Lost Youth of Edgar Allan Poe
By Scott Gustafson
Simon & Schuster, 2011
Simon & Schuster, 2011
$15.99, ages 8-12, 208 pages
Imagine a demon filling a boy's head with dark thoughts and that boy using them to write some of the greatest horror stories ever written, and you have the basis of Scott Gustafson's marvelous biography of young Edgar Allan Poe.
Spinning the truth into a fantastic narrative, Gustafson imagines a young Poe listening to and engaging a real-life Imp of Perverse as he writes his first horror stories and poems. At his side is also a talking Raven who tries to moderate the imp's wily influence.
An Imp of Perverse, as Poe fans will remember from his short story by the same name, is a spirit who causes people to commit morally questionable acts. Here, however, the imp, named McCobber, doesn't corrupt Poe into doing dangerous things, but rather gives him fodder for his imagination.
The tiny goblin-like spirit shows up on Poe's shoulder the night his childhood begins to unravel. Poe's father is drunk, and he's slipped into Poe's bedroom to kiss him goodbye before deserting his family. At that moment, the imp jumps from father to son, a bitter-sweet gift that will change Poe's life forever.
In a brief introduction, Gustafson explains the meaning of the imp much as Poe did in his short story: "If you have ever stood at the window in a tall building, or on the brink of a scenic mountain overlook, you may have heard a small voice whisper, 'Go ahead, jump!' Then, most likely, you also felt that chilling jab in the gut as you, just for a moment, imagined yourself plummeting over the edge."
Of course most people dismiss these feelings of the macabre, Gustafson adds, but Poe was different. He listened to his imp, they "lingered on the edge and peered over. And then they got creative," imagining each of them crashing down to a grisly, horrific end. And it's that devilish sensibility, Poe's desire to poke around in the dark side of his imagination, he continues, that made him extraordinary.
Along with the imp, Gustafson introduces the raven from the poem that ma
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