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Poe's Scottish Connections
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Searching For Poe In Scotland
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THIS IS THE SITE for information and updates about our research and manuscript project of Edgar Allan Poe in Scotland. MODIFIED 18 February 2010, Foster City, California, these pages are an ongoing project. This site contains but "samples" only of photographs and commentary of our many research trips to Ayrshire, Scotland.
Please be advised that we have finally acquired the genealogical data of the Edgar Allan Poe-to-John Poe, of Fenwich, 1655, data. This, and other Poe Family Trees, will be in our book. Nevertheless, neither our study nor these pages are meant as an authority of the genealogical histories of our subjects. Consequently, if one can understand why the Poe Family in America, or any others, rile at my information, it suggests a very serious bigotry against the Scots on the one hand, and the academic and scholarly limits of people on the other. In consequence, we have not responded to their objections, or efforts to lobby the Ayrshire Councils in Scotland against our work, which they well know. Any living American with the name Poe, but not Edgar Allan Poe, or listed in our Index, is of absolutely no relevance to our study. Moreover, anyone in America who has even a little common sense must know that if the Historical Societies of Scotland, and the Robert Burns World Federation, Ltd., members know of Edgar Allan Poe's connections with Ayrshire, local council members do as well! It is the mark of Americans to believe that they know more about the people of Scotland than the Scots. Moreover, a Ph. D. in anything does not confer upon the holder an authority to speak on every subject. Edgar Poe himself made such an observation and comment in his own letters when he stated that in America every man is a monarch, each is entitled to one's opinion, and has them on every subject! Fortunately, America Courts of Law separate the man from the monarch.
I have added Mae McEwen’s article in the Irvine Herald, of years ago, but the viewer may need to cut and save for enlargement in an "editor." Also, see on our page, "What Others Are Saying," for announcements of information on this site, as well as Press Releases.
Please see my pages, "Excerpts from our book," in which an Irvine, Ayrshire, local historian, Billy Kerr, has found the "Carven ship" on the Allan Family headstone. Billy photographed many Allan headstones that only Hervey Allen discussed in his biography of Poe. This mute evidence of the Allan-Poe family connection in his 1926 and 1934 editions of Israfel was vital information that helped us find this otherwise unknown family relation between John Allan and Edgar Allan Poe.
Billy informs us of his "Trades' Graveyard Tour [of the Irvine Kirkyard Cemetery]," especially of "stone No. 16 [of the Irvine Cemetery grave map]," that we detail in pp 78-79 of our book-in-progress, The Mystery of "Mar'se Eddie" in the Shire, Edgar Allan Poe's Scots Connections. Please go to www.irvinetrades.org to see Mr. Kerr's tour in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, June 2009. Another recent article in the Irvine Herald has used a photo in our website for illustration with the article. Why is the Poe family relic not of interest to living scholars of Poe? Perhaps they sail in an alien sea of research? For further information of this, and other events regarding Poe in Scotland, please e-mail Bob Brill: poeinscotland@aol.com. Do not be adrift as other "ancient mariners" before Poe charted our course.
Also of interest is Mae McEwan's recent article from the Irvine Herald, in the same city. She provides information from history books and conversations with researchers in the past that no one but a local person would know, such as the detailed genealogy in McJannet's very old History of the Burgh of Irvine. Mr. Kerr has sent a copy of still another article by McEwan regarding Poe in Ayrshire. She shares information from the 1997 publication by John McInnes, which we mention from time to time. The essential facts of the Poe-Allan gravesite were submitted by this author, and have already been published by the Poe Studies Association, a short time later, 1998?
The above illustration is courtesy of The Scotsman Magazine, December 1992. Published since 1739, this magazine often features history and travel articles by our correspondent and friend, James Gracie, seen in the Kilmarnock pages. Mr. Gracie's most recently published book (of which we know) is Spectacular SCOTLAND, by Beaux Arts Editions, Copyright by Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., ISBN-10:0-88363-450-3. We (Grace and I) happened to be in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, for business reasons, and found the book during a visit to our local Borders' Books.
DISCLAIMER: As frequently stated, the author has debilitating dyslexia. The affliction is comparable to "word blindness," and even with the aid of a spell-checker program and Ms. Kenmotsu, considerable errors of grammar, punctuation, and spelling are present. There is no such proof-reader with the Register.com web-page-word processor service in use here. However, the most blatant criticism of these pages came from a Scotsman in Germany who was doing work about Poe, and wrote that there were "glaring and serious errors" in my layout, and presentation. His opinions were tough (difficult) on the ego to read, but as time allows, I shall edit these pages in an ongoing effort to make the information more readable to those who visit. Some visitors have been kind in notifying me of errors, but usually not other scholars of Poe. I have yet to receive any notice of errors of what we found in Scotland which we believe significantly illuminates many mysteries of Poe's life and work. The reason is simple: no one knew! There are those who know how to spell, and there are those who know the culture and topography of Scotland, but no one knew how all of that exists in Poe's fiction and poetry.
RUSSIA BOMBS TBILISI, GEORGIA, August 9, 2008.... This announcement will remain until Russia leaves the county. Let's see who has the courage to do what is right. The Russian, ongoing presence in Georgia is a badge of cowardice of our government to expel them, and the general malaise of a united character in Europe to defend their neighbors.
After a return from our home in Thailand to my domicile in Kailua-Kona, to use my library and materials kept at that home, I finished the final editing of my manuscript of the biography of Edgar Allan Poe's Scottish Connections. That was achieved on 16 January, at 7 p.m.! By "final," I mean what I know about using word processors, the ancient MLA format that I learned and used in university through the M. A. in English, in 1976, and so on. The manuscript is hardly finished. I am finished with the details of the "Poe genealogy" that supports the statements that the Edgar Allan Poe's family were originally from Fenwick, Ayrshire, long before the connection with Ireland. Our data show the family relationships amongst The Ayrshire Lads, Allan, Burns, Galt, and Poe. That is a fascinating story in itself, but is provided in our study as further support of the affects and influence of Scotland upon the mind and literature of Poe.
We attended the 2009 International Conference for the Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, Waikiki Hilton Hotel, sponsored by the University of Louisville-Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods. The Keynote Speaker was Professor H. R. Stoneback, State University of New York, who shared his own connections with Hawaii's early Sixties' music scene, and read from his current collection of poetry, "Amazing Grace-Wheelchair-Jumpshot-Jesus-Love-Poems>" This www.Register.com word-processing program does not allow one to punctuate correctly, so I have used quotation marks for Professor Stoneback's poetry collection. His presentation was hypnotic and poetically exotic to all, who sat in stony homage of this incomparable man of letters. He is not a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, unfortunately.
Nevertheless, what we provide in our website here are a few of the exhibits and photographs of first impressions, acquaintances and friends whom we have made, and very brief remarks of explanation. No attempt is made here to make deep academic or scholarly statements of our subject. Even our book has but a few "serious" passages that explore what I call Poe's "hieroglyphic level" of meaning in each of his works. The pages here should indicate the fun that we had meeting people in Scotland and England as we acquired our information and insights. The serious work and statements of difficulties that we encountered in this project are left for the readers of our book.
Finally, there were those, Americans only, who simply discounted the importance of our efforts and findings. Often they did not extend us the courtesy of a smile, or a reply to our written inquires and conversations. Others in academia who know of our work have never forwarded information of materials that they have developed from our published findings. One can understand, therefore, our dedication to such persons as Frank Beattie, Staff Reporter, The Kilmarnock Standard, and every member of the Robert Burns World Federation, Ltd., Presidents of its Clubs, Peter Westwood, Editor of the Burns Chronicle, and so many others.
There are others in Scotland who teach literature, and who now have awareness and knowledge of our work. They have gone on to look more closely at the inferences that can be drawn from our work to Poe's fiction and life. Given that they are in positions of academic and professional support, they have published exciting articles and essays of Poe's Scottish Connections, but without giving us any credit as the source.
Still others on both sides of the Atlantic write from time to time to ask if I know this or that book, conclusion, or idea about Poe. Poe enthusiasts and students are encouraged to perform a web search under Poe in Scotland, or similar Google Search in that regard. Our domain names (poeinscotland.com, edgarallanpoecannon.com, etc.), web pages, and site are being posted, slowly. Note, however, the date of any web posting, publication, or claim of knowing anything of this subject before 2000. Our last research visit to Ayrshire was in 2002, before anything on the subject had been published, except where noted. Since that time, there are radio broadcasts, movies, published articles, and Internet activity that make this or that comment of Poe's Scottish Connections not known before our project was completed. Nevertheless, in honor and memory of Edgar Allan Poe one is encouraged to use our findings freely. This project is a reflection of the author's love of Poe, his life, and his work only.
Only Greenock, in Strathclyde, to the north, does not as yet have a plaque of Poe's visit. I have, fortunately, been successful with establishing Ms. Lesley Couperwhite, Retired Library Director of the James Watt Museum and Library in Greenock, as our correspondent in Strathclyde to represent this interest.
Bob Brill is a former Sacramento, California, Police Department Criminal Investigator (Detective), who first read Poe while a Junior at U. C. Davis, in 1971. He was the very first law enforcement officer in the Sacramento basin who had ever attended the University of California in the English Major while employed in police work. By comparison, his acquaintance on the Los Angeles Police Department, Joseph Wambaugh, had earned his B. A. in English, and then became a Police Officer. Brill went on to earn the M. A. in English at Sacramento State University in 1982, while attending night Law School as well. Wambaugh went on to write, publish, and produce 25 novels and their movies. Brill is a two-time scholarship winner to Professor Oakley Hall's Community of Writers in Squaw Valley, 1971 and 1973; however, he has spent his post-graduate employment in aviation and law. He is now retired from the United States Air Force and United Airlines, Inc. He lives in Chon Buri, Thailand, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and Foster City, California.
Ms. Kenmotsu and Brill met in 1993 as California Teachers at the San Mateo County Office of Education, while attempting to earn the Language Development Specialist's Credential (LDSC). This program was reserved for those with B. A.s, who had at least one foreign language skill. Ms. Kenmotsu is now retired from the Foster City-San Mateo School District. Kenmotsu still tutors children in Japanese. Please see our page, "Poe at WestPoint," for details of her son's nomination by Congressman Tom Lantos to the Academy.
I must expressly state my very deep gratitude for first having met Ms. Grace Kimiye Kenmotsu, who was a combination Third-Fourth Grade Classroom Teacher at the time. Given my dyslexia, absence of memory for print content, and complete failure of spelling correctly, my project simply would not exist without her constant help and interest. But for our relationship that grew from a meeting in 1993, and her subsequent assistance during interviews, research, and companionship during some dreadful personal experiences, not to mention her extraordinary habits of documentation and organization, "our" book would just have been a holiday to Scotland! Nothing more.
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The image of Poe, above, is from The Edgar Allan Poe Review's Spring 2000, Volume 1, Number 1 edition, Professor Barbara Cantalupo, Editor. Information regarding membership in the Poe Studies Association will be entered under the "Links" menu in future. Other than The Scots Magazine artist's rendering with Gracie's article, there is no known representation of Edgar Allan Poe in his pre-teen years, while in The United Kingdom, as it was known at that time, and since. The book, The Portraits and Daguerreotypes of EDGAR ALLAN POE, by Michael J. Deas, The University Press of Virginia, Copyright 1988, by the Rector and Visitors of the University, contains several versions of the above portrait. Poe's forehead hair, and the right tail of Poe's black tie, exist in identical location in plates 22 (p. 55), 23, (p. 59), 36, (p. 81) 73 (p. 161), 74, and plate 75 (p. 165). Our guess is that it is the "Stuart engraving," in which Poe's eyes are similar to those in the Review, plate 36, on page 81. The following narrative is lifted from our original website at American Online's free Hometown pages, that I named at the time, "Searching for Poe in Scotland." Since 1996, we (Bob Brill and Grace Kenmotsu) have frequently traveled to Ayrshire, Scotland, on her western coast of the Atlantic. We have recorded and photographed places which Hervey Allen reported in his 1926 biography of Edgar Allan Poe, ISRAFEL. Allen's work is the most comprehensive statement of a "Poe in Scotland connection." He mentions wherever Edgar Allan Poe was known to have lived and visited until that time. Kilmarnock, Glasgow, Fenwick, Irvine, Greenock, Newton Stewart all have connections to Poe. Our research and findings in these venues (cities, towns, villages, and hamlets) became "books" within our book, that we call "Surveys." Therefore, for information of Poe in Kilmarnock area we call it, "The Kilmarnock Survey," and so on. Only the "sleepy little village" of Stoke Newington, London, England had any indication of a Poe connection. There, we found placards mounted on buildings to mark the Poe connection. The local research library of Hackney Stoke Newington and The Fox Reformed Pub and Inn. Now, as a consequence of giving talks on our subject, historical societies and others in Ayrshire--Dundonald, Kilmarnock, Irvine, Saltcoats, and Newton Stewart--have exhibits, documented placards, plaques, and relics in their records of Poe's connections. We have others to install as funding and time allow. This website is meant to link other Poe enthusiasts to a few relevant sites in Scotland that we have found and established. Our facts and findings have existed nowhere else before our research project, except as noted. However, the North Ayrshire Council's Saltcoats Museum, where David Poe and Ann Allan and family are buried, is now our "headquarters" of "The Poe Trail." The reason is that it is centrally located to all points of interest, and the only public exhibit of its kind in Scotland. Our pages here are but samples of what exists in our forthcoming book, "Mar'se Eddie" in the Shire, Poe's Scottish Connections. For additional narrative information, go to page 3, "Poe in Scotland."
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Map of the Ayrshire area. We include the areas of both Edinburgh and Belfast, Ireland, as the Allan and Poe families during the 18th and 19th Centuries had shipping activities and interests in the North Channel and the Firth of Clyde, from Stranraer to Belfast and north to Greenock. Information of the Poe Shipping Company is courtesy of local Burnsian and historian Thomas Hutton, of Dunfirmline, Scotland. Consult other maps for enlargements. Link to maps: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/main.adp?country=GB
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The logical place to begin research in Scotland for Poe would be the only place of which we had any knowledge, Glasgow. In a footnote Hervey Allen mentions John Allan having gone to Glasgow, nothing more! However, at the time, I believed that it was the only city near Ayrshire that had an airport. We, therefore, went to the University of Glasgow in an effort to speak with academics who might already know of the information which we sought.
In the above photograph, taken by Grace Kenmotsu during our 1997 visit, the Chair of the Department of English, renowned F. Scot Fitzgerald scholar, Professor Andrew Hook, with his Professor of American Literature, Susan Castillo are seen. They graciously spoke with us in the faculty lounge of the University. Professor Hook has since retired. Professor Castillo, originally from Virginia, had visited Poe's Room 13 on the West Range of the campus. She remains at the University of Glasgow.
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Seen in the garden, of what Hervey Allen correctly described as, "the Edgar Allan Poe Museum and Shrine," are Grace Kenmotsu and Mr. John English, the former Director of the Museum. This photograph is from our (Bob and Grace Brill's) first success in California of finding something of an organization, structure, or beginning of where to look for more information about Poe. As with all with whom we came in contact during our project, we were expected, and presumed, to know that they exist, and where and how to find them!
It is well enough for those in education and Poe scholars to be thoroughly aware of library and social repositories of such information; however, to "outsiders" of the "Poe Community," such as Brill and Kenmotsu, his existence and such information were not evident.
When we did find a "first" site, such as that given by Hervey Allen, we made every effort to locate it. Incredibly, neither the telephone Information Directory nor local Chamber of Commerce stated they had any such listings! Some months later we flew to Richmond, Virginia, and found "The Poe Museum and Shrine."
Mr. English was very delighted to accommodate our questions. Our first visit to Richmond was but three days. Our return visits were even shorter. Thereafter, we followed this visit from Pacifica, California, to other sites and literature of, or connected to, Poe, such as the University of Virginia, Charlottesville's Room 13, and Baltimore, Maryland. Elsewhere in Mr. Allen's book, Israfel, and most in the bibliographies of Poe biographies, thereafter, we were able to construct an "outsider's" understanding of Poe biographical information. Our goal is to help other lay fans of Poe find places in America and Scotland which took us considerable effort and expense to locate.
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The Trinity Church, above, was opened in 1863 for the congregation of the burgher Kirk. Seen above, it is opposite of Edgar Allan Poe's father's Bridge Gate house in Irvine, not far from his cousin, John Galt's house, on the High Street. On the 1815 map of Irvine, each holder of the fee title is identified by its owner's name. Photo provided by Billy Kerr, local historian in Irvine, and intimately knowledgeable of Edgar Allan Poe's path to and from home school, and his time in Irvine.
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Application Appendix to the Journal "Newsletters" of Academy of Education Sciences of Georgia, Georgian Academy of Edu8cation Sciences, Tbilisi, The Republic of Georgia, 2009, ISSN #1512-102X, the Editors and Publishers of the Journal, 3-15-2009, published this writer's essay, "Edgar Allan Poe and the Poet's Freedom of Coinage," in English, Georgian, and Russian.
This is a preliminary notice of the publication and my article until further comments and citation can be made.
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