The Monetary Imagination of Edgar Allan Poe: Banking, Currency and Politics in the Writings

231 Pages·2013·10.5 MB·English

by  Heinz Tschachler

The Monetary Imagination
of Edgar Allan Poe
ALSO BY HEINZ TSCHACHLER
The Greenback: Paper Money and American Culture(McFarland, 2010)
The Monetary Imagination
of Edgar Allan Poe
Banking, Currency and
Politics in the Writings
H T
EINZ SCHACHLER
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ISBN 978-0-7864-7583-4
softcover : acid free paper
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2013 Heinz Tschachler. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover images: young crow
and cash bag (iStockphoto/Thinkstock)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For Gerhild, my wife,
for Katrin, Max, Moritz and Ulle,
for Hilde,
and to the memory of my father and mother
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Prologue: “Y’all Don’t Know; But Poe Know” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1. Poe, the Critics and the Question of America’s Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2. Captain Kidd’s Treasure and the Paper System: Questions of Trust . . . . . . . . . 49
3. Capital Stories: Poe, the Banks and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4. Poe’s Nightmares: Gold, Counterfeits and Literary Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5. Fables of Circulation: Poe, Civic Virtue and the “American System” . . . . . . . 136
Epilogue: The National Currency and Methods in Madness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Chapter Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Bibliographic Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
vii
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Acknowledgments
The idea of writing this book began to germinate while I was at work on The Greenback:
Paper Money and American Culture (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010), in which I analyze
the currency as a proxy for the nation’s power and its citizens’ social identities. I then took
some preliminary thoughts about the project to the “International Edgar Allan Poe Bicen-
tennial Conference: The Long Shadow of a Tormented Genius,” held at the University of
Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain, November 19–21, 2009. An early version of “Green and Red
Tints” was presented to the 34th International AEDEAN (Spanish Association for English
and American Studies) Conference, Almería, Spain, November 11–13, 2010. A version of
Chapter 2was presented at “The Backyard of the U.S. Mansion,” X Congreso SAAS (Spanish
Association for American Studies), Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain, April 14–16, 2011.
This book is all about money, banking, and the literary imagination, though the obli-
gations I have accumulated are personal rather than financial. Without naming particular
names, I wish to thank the friendly and efficient staff of the library and interlibrary loan
desks at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. I am also grateful for a special grant from the
Dean of the School of Humanities and Culture Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagen-
furt to help cover the costs of reproductions and rights. A leave of absence award from the
university in support of this project helped me to bring it to a conclusion. Finally, I would
like to thank by name several friends and scholars who shared their time, knowledge, and
advice: Richard G. Doty, Director, and Karen Lee, Curator, National Numismatic Collec-
tion, Smithsonian Institution; Douglas A. Mudd, Curator, American Numismatic Associ-
ation; Jeffrey A. Savoye, the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore; Bob Brugger, the Johns
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore; Elizabeth Watts Pope, Andrew Bourque, and Jaclyn
Penny, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts; Ruth Bowler, the Walters
Art Museum, Baltimore; Sue Bell, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Winfried Fluck, John-
F.-Kennedy-Institut, Freie Universität, Berlin; Eva Muhm, American Reference Center,
United States Embassy, Vienna; Eugen Banauch, American Studies, University of Vienna;
Herbert Emmerig, Numismatics, University of Vienna; and Gerwin Gallob, University of
California at Santa Cruz.
A particular thank you goes to colleagues and friends who took time from impossible
schedules to read the manuscript, in whole or in part, and otherwise offered useful criticism
and valuable suggestions: Stephen Mihm, Department of History, University of Georgia;
Richard Kopley, Department of English, Penn State University at Dubois; Walter Grünzweig,
Universität Dortmund; Daniel Shanahan, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University,
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