5 - Lionizing: Poe as Cultural Signifier

Summary

Examining the Meisterstück Edgar Allan Poe, the ingenious structure of clean proportions and mysterious depth is revealed. As in Poe's works, where logic and mysticism are interlinked in an unparalleled manner, every detail reveals profound aesthetics. With the Meisterstück Edgar Allan Poe this great American writer has found extraordinary and stylish recognition.

— Brochure produced by Montblanc, 1998

NOT LONG AFTER my book Edgar Allan Poe Revisited was published, the manager of a Montblanc boutique contacted me about giving a talk to tie in with their new Meisterstück Edgar Allan Poe writing instrument. Eager to promote my book and secretly hoping for a deep discount, I gave her a copy to use as part of a window display and spent a half hour telling her about Poe's interest in autography, his own meticulous penmanship, his dreams of anastatic printing allowing writers to self-publish without typesetting, the implications of Poe's titling his prospective magazine first the Penn, then the Stylus, and so on. The relationship never got past that meeting: my hopes of owning a Montblanc pen were unrealized, the manager kept a copy of my book but never displayed it, and there was no public lecture on Poe and pens. More recently, a middle school teacher asked if I would come talk to two hundred seventh graders about Poe; after discussing a few possible dates, we settled on October 31. Then she asked if I generally dressed up as Poe for these occasions.