Аннотация: The horror of a mysterious message from the otherworld, deciphered by Edgar Allan Poe. A cryptological story.
The horror of a mysterious message from the otherworld, deciphered by Edgar Allan Poe. A cryptological story.
Edgar Allan Poe discovered in himself not only the talents of the poet and prose writer, the abilities to decipher all kinds of ciphers, but a positive influence of the own personal cooperation on the profitability of a literary magazines.
A most of magazines, where Poe acted as an employee (actual editor), increased circulation, recruited additional subscribers, and started to generate a noticeable income.
Having discovered the ability of such a personal positive influence on the profitability of magazines, Edgar Allan Poe, naturally, felt a desire to create his own magazine - to become a wealthy, a self-sufficient person, to move to a higher social level.
Such a desire was motivated not only by the desire for a normal life, but also by the subtle emotional background that the family created - the wife and the mother-in-law (other relatives were located a little in the distance, but Poe knew and was remembering about them).
In the years 1839-1840, Edgar Allan Poe collaborated with William Evans Burton, the owner of the Burton's Gentleman's Magazine.
While working in the magazine of W. Burton, Edgar Allan Poe proved to be a master at solving, unravelling of a cryptograms and ciphers.
Edgar Allan Poe, for example, publicly stated that he able to unravel any encrypted message and invited readers to send an encryption to him (to Magazine). Indeed, in almost all cases, he was successful in decoding. With such a unique employee (perhaps the only one in the United States, and perhaps all over the world, - with such abilities), were quite natural both the good financial situation of the magazine owned by W. Burton and the intention of Poe to organize his own magazine .
Having learned from newspapers about Edgar Allan Poe"s intention to establish his own magazine, Burton writes a letter to Edgar Allan Poe. In the letter, Burton expresses a negative attitude towards Poe's intention and announces the dismissal of Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe worked for William Burton (was an employee of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine) from June 1839 to June 1840, that is, about 12 months.
Due to the dismissal at the initiative of W. Burton, Edgar Poe suffered a nervous breakdown, the issue of the new "The Penn" magazine had to be postponed.
Edgar Allan Poe develops and publishes in October 1840 the prospectus of his journal "The Penn". The new journal is scheduled to begin publishing in January 1841.
Oddly enough, but following the publication of the prospectus in October 1840, W. Burton in November 1840 sells his magazine to George Graham, the owner of the not-so-well-known "Casket" magazine (George Rex Graham (1813-1894)).
The magazine is sold to the new owner. Edgar Poe was dismissed.
The Burton's Gentleman's Magazine was sold at a price of $ 3,500; the number of subscribers was not bad - about 3,500 (already 1500 subscribers could ensure the payback of a magazine).
But, as it turned out, everything is not so bad (for Edgar Allan Poe).
The new owner of the magazine, George Graham, is not a stupid person.
At the time of the deal with William Burton, George Graham already had a magazine with 1,500 subscribers. The new owner combined both magazines, and it turned out 5000 subscribers, which was not bad at all.
But besides the ability to make a deals, it was necessary to be skilled to issue a magazine. Edgar Allan Poe's reputation was in doubt for many reasons. One reason was the recent dismissal at the initiative of W. Burton.
But J. Graham acted not only mercifully, but also generously. He recruited Edgar Allan Poe as an actual editor and expressed support for Edgar Allan Poe's plans to organize a new magazine. J. Graham expressed his intention to become Edgar Poe 's partner in a new magazine.
It is right to be in friendly relation with such a person. Edgar Allan Poe, agreeing to a relatively small salary, became the actual editor of the already existing "Graham's Magazine" (created by Graham as a result of the merger of the two magazines - after the deal with W. Burton).
The situation has changed. It was necessary to stop for a moment and to look around.
The release of "The Penn" (a magazine conceived by Poe) was again delayed.
Edgar Poe was publishing his works in "Graham's Magazine" and worked with dedication. He works for his future business partner - that is, for himself.
In about a year and a half, the circulation of "Graham's Magazine" grew from 3,500 (5,000) copies to 20,000, and then to 40,000 (forty thousand) copies.
Edgar Allan Poe's wage level has not increased (to a noticeable extent). But a rich life and happiness were nearby. Therefore, it was necessary to work with double energy.
Naturally, Edgar Allan Poe watched the increase in circulation and was writing down the numbers on a separate piece of paper.
While working in the "Graham's Magazine", Edgar Allan Poe continued to show readers the own cryptanalysis abilities.
Once, looking at a sheet of paper with increasing digits of the circulation of the "Graham's Magazine", Edgar Poe felt that the column of numbers resembles an encrypted message.
Being a creative person, he began to decipher the message, which, apparently, was sent from the otherworld.
As always, the decryption attempt was successful.
The message said that George Graham changed his mind to create a magazine in partnership with Edgar Allan Poe.
Edgar Poe did not talk his wife and mother-in-law about the decrypted message, but he was a sincere and emotional person. Close people could to guess of a something.
In January 1842, Virginia, the wife of Edgar Allan Poe, had a throat bleeding.
The decrypted message and the attack of tuberculosis in the wife joined together and plunged Edgar Allan Poe into a deep depression.
In April 1842, after a deep depression, Edgar Poe came to the editorial office of "Graham's Magazine" and discovered the other person at his desk and in his workplace.
On the one hand, there were a real formal grounds for dismissal. And on the other hand, the affair was carried out without unnecessary preliminary unpleasant conversations.
The positions of the actual editor (editor de facto) and of the future partner (if to keep in mind George Graham) were lost by Edgar Poe forever ...
Edgar Allan worked for J. Graham (was an employee of the "Graham's Magazine") from February 1841 to April 1842, that is, about 13 months.
The horror and mystery of the message from the otherworld, which was deciphered by Edgar Allan Poe, consisted not only in itself of negative information, but also in the absence of a data - was Edgar Poe ready for an independent managing and releasing, publication of the magazine?
Around 1842, Edgar Allan Poe, a brilliant writer and profitable editor, became a man whose wife was mortally, almost hopelessly ill, a writer, whose psyche was broken and was destroying by depressions ... The possibilities for an independent (or in partnership) a successful publication of a magazine narrowed accordingly ...
Edgar Allan Poe continued his collaboration with "Graham's Magazine" not as an editor (employee), but as an author. (The gracious and loyal attitude of J. Graham towards Edgar Allan Poe has not disappeared.)
Not the efforts to produce magazines, but the literary creativity brought the world fame for Edgar Allan Poe ... If you hold the opinion that the fate corrected Edgar Poe attempts, the corresponding events can be considered a manifestation of mysticism...
In January 1843, Edgar Allan Poe have been declared insolvent by court. Around the same time, Edgar Allan Poe"s plans to publish "The Penn" went away into a history ... Somehow, the Sun of Fortune shone for Edgar Allan Poe in a special way. For example, in the title of the book by Andrei Tanaseichuk "Edgar Poe. Genius of a twilight tune" [Андрей Танасейчук "Эдгар По. Сумрачный гений"] the word "twilight" ["сумрачный"] was used ... Maybe something is encrypted in this word? ...
April 12, 2020 11:55
Translation from Russian into English: April 12, 2020 23:36.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Ужас таинственного сообщения из потустороннего мира, расшифрованного Эдгаром Алланом По. Криптологический рассказ".