Irving, Hawthorne and Poe

Washington Irving-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

This post is in honor of Halloween. Sleepy Hollow terrifies me this time of year.

When I lived in the woods in Northern MN., and I would walk to the shed or down the dirt driveway in Oct. I was on edge. The leaves were gone from the trees and the branches were like sharp gray spikes thrashing in the wind. It was easy to get goosebumps thinking "The Horseman" could burst out of the woods at any moment. During the day, or in the city this seems silly, but at night in the seclusion of woods, you would believe too. I took this illusion and ran with it at some "killer" Halloween  trail of terror parties for my teenage kids. Irving took a legend, or created one, put it in words and succeeded in speaking to something primal in all of us. I love this short novel with it's fireside dance in the colonial home, the dork Ichabod and the bully Brom Bones.

Washington Irving-Christmas at Bracebridge Hall

Anyone who loves Christmas traditions in bygone days will love Irving's Christmas at Bracebridge Hall. It is somewhere between a short story and a novella describing a visit to Bracebridge Hall in Yorkshire, England at Christmas time. It starts with the narrator's stagecoach ride through the English countryside in late December, his impressions of the great estate of Bracebridge Hall and the inhabitants. In rich detail, Irving describes everything about the holiday festivities over the next two days, from food to decorations to games they played. This story is a wonderful narration of an 18th Century Christmas and is not only a historical description of the traditions and customs of England in the past but a cozy and cheerful story which will put anyone into the Christmas spirit who reads it.  

Edgar Allen Poe-His works

Since I was a teenager, Poe's poem, From Childhood's Hour has resonated for me in a way I am sure it resonates for many artists. It is about being different and thinking differently. I have always loved his melancholy verse and, of course, his down right terrifying Gothic short stories. I was so inspired by his work that I wove a scene into my novel, The Pride of the King from The Fall of the House of Usher and The Premature Burials. (A woman in a coma was buried alive, woke up, pulled the bell cord from the coffin before she suffocated just in time to be "saved by the bell.")

I also took inspiration from his rich description of the rooms in The Masque of the Red Death as well. To this day I can still see the brilliantly colored rooms. I know this story is loaded with symbolism, but for me, it reminds me of the M. Night Shyamalan's movie, The Village. No matter how hard you try to physically protect yourself from evil, it will find a way into our lives.
Back in 2009, I toured Poe's home in Philadelphia where he and his wife rented rooms. It was empty and soooo much better than going to a museum fully renovated and furnished with period pieces. The structure was undergoing its first renovation to become a museum after being a private dwelling since the time Poe had live there. It was run down and the museum staff had stripped out the modern fixtures revealing the original flooring and wallpaper. The best part of the tour was when the guide pulled up a floor board in one of the rooms Poe and his wife had rented. She showed us the hairpins that had been dropped down accidentally between wood flooring by some woman that has lived there years and years earlier. Perhaps it had been Poe's wife. It was almost as if they had just moved out. The guide said that Poe's wife had died there. It was such a personal and intimate glimpse into their lives, all because of a few hair pins. I have never forgotten it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne-The House of Seven Gables


How come they have not made this into a movie recently? I know of one black and white film from the forties with Vincent Price (which isn't even on Netflix) but nothing else.

I was surprised to find when I read the movie trailer just now that it was about one brother framing the other brother for murder. I read the book in my college days, and I don't know if I can't remember the plot line because it is not memorable or if it is that my mind is thick with cobwebs. I do know the memory of the house itself, which still stands in Salem, still haunts me. It is a dark and gabled structure and every bit as creepy as you would think. And I do remember vaguely the story is about the sins of the father revisiting the sons. It is about the later generations of a family in Massachusetts, whose ancestors had been involved in the Salem witch trials. The tourist dept. in Salem tries to make you think this book is hair raising but that much I do remember, it is not! The House of Seven Gables was different than what I had thought at the outset, but I do remember liking it. Why did I write this review? Maybe I shouldn't have, time to re-read this book.