|
I am honored for
the interest in our project, regardless of how limited, that others have shown in Poe's Scottish Connections. From professors
of American and British Literature at the international conferences where I have presented papers in Europe, to most
of the attendees of the conferences from Asian universities, who have little, if any, knowledge of Poe (as we learned from
the attendees from Asia to the 8th Hawaii International Conference on the Arts and Humanities, in the photo), no one has been
judgemental or rude. Pictured above are some of the professors from Asian universities, and Ms. Kenmotsu, who acted
as interpreter. On the left is Professor Nattthapat Saisena, Ph. D., who had been a Thai Buddhist monk until earning
his Doctorate at a university in India. He teaches at the Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, near the King's residence,
in Bangkok. The other young professors in the photograph are in Japan. Nevertheless, those organizations
and publications listed to the left are the patrons of Poe scholarship, and have seen some of our information worthy of mention
or publication.
Our complete list of published articles has been submitted to both the Modern Language Association
(MLA), as well as the Poe Studies, Department of English, Washington Stat University, through Guest Editor, Professor Susan
Amper, of the POE STUDIES/DARK ROMANTICISM: History, Theory, Interpretation. The several Burns Chronicle
articles are not available through intra-library loan and research facilities. Any mention of our information in these publications
does not constitute an endorsement of my findings, but merely are shared with other students of Poe.
Our articles are written and published as a "filler" until such
time as our complete work can be published. URLs of local newspapers in Ayrshire, Scotland, that published articles and photographs
of our project are not provided. Moreover, other institutional and organizational repositories of our journalistic collage
are not provided for reasons of ethics against intrusion of their primary function.
Please forgive spelling and typographical errors. The author has serious dyslexia, and my "spell-checker,"
Grace Kenmotsu, reviews and edits these pages as her schedule allows. See <www.irvinetrades.org> for the tour of the
Irvine Churchyard, by correspondant, local historian Billy Kerr.
http://libarts.wsu.edu/english/Journals/PoeStudies/
|
The Ulster-Scot Newspaper
|
The Atlantic Literary Review
|
Poe Studies Association
www.ayrshireroots.co.uk
(Genealogy Site) | Please see web
sites for the Irvine Herold newspaper, and the Burns World Club, among the many others.
Almost none of the web sites and sources of information in Scotland appear in
a Google Search of Edgar Allan Poe. However, even if one conducts the noun-specific search of Poe in Scotland,
little is returned. Therefore, aside from those seeking genealogical information of the Edgar Allan Poe family, do send
me a note of inquiry, and I shall attempt to direct you to your area of interest. Just one example is Billy Kerr's "Irvine Cemetary Tour." He has provided those interested
in Poe the available information of the Allan Family headstones, none of which have Poe names inscribbed. Nevertheless,
James Gracie has shown that Master Allan was shwon those headstones by his foster father, John Allan, whose family are buried
in that cemetary. Many other examples exist.
|
Click for Facebook connection
See our fellow Poe scholar's website, and then on to her other sites, for books, movies, and creative projects concerning
Edgar Allan Poe, http://synastrypress.com/.
Ayrshire Roots (genealogy site)
It is important to make Google searchesof nouns
and terms, such as John Galt, in our pages when searching for material about Edgar Allan Poe. Most of the available
information of Poe's American writers is well known, and quickly available in the search engines. Nevertheless, when
we began our project in 1996, our local San Mateo County libraries had very few books, including the local community colleges.
However, web-based data regarding a Scottish connection is even more sparse. For just one example, Billy
Kerr's web cite of the Trades Tour of the cemetery headstones in Irvine would not be found, except by specific knowledge
that there is a connection of the tour to Poe. There is another American website regarding films, called Rotten
Tomatoes, who also used our material. I found it inadvertently through a collateral search of Poe
in Scotland. Still another obscure web site with an unexpected connection to our information is found about "ssf
audio." URL: http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=7655. I have been challenged by two of its members that my statements on these pages, about the influences of Scotland on
Poe, and another as to his linage is not important to his writing. Interesting, but note the place to
argue with uninformed Poe fans, those who know nothing of my findings and conclusions. I do not
argue with those who have not been to Scotland, nor do not know the function that social psychology controls
in human development. Certainly, this is a significant consideration for Defense Lawyers with their clients. The local Irvine newspaper article to the
right is but one in which we would not know had been published, but one of our correspondents informed us so. In
this case, Billy Kerr, mentioned elsewhere as a local historian. It is not an important article to students and scholars
seeking analysis and information of Poe and his work, but taken individually, it adds to the important need of exposure and
visibility of our growing research product. Notice that neither Poe nor this author's names are given, as the photograph
is well known in Ayrshire at this time. As we have stated, the pose first appeared in the Scotsman Magazine as an artist's
rendering of a young Poe at the local academy. Then the photograph appeared elsewhere during our visits. Nevertheless,
even as well known as the photograph might be, academic and journalistic protocol would call for some identification and credit
for Ms. Kenmotsu's photograph.
|
This web site was created
in 2004 with the help of our friend in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Teri Apia. Her site is called www.Konagal.com, and has several photos about were we live, West Hawaii, Hawaii. However, this is a do-it-yourself web hosting program,
for which this writer has little aptitude. Nevertheless, in need of a layman's adjunct with our manuscript project,
I struggle on. Register.com continues to make their program more "user friendly," and to which they have
added "visitors." We have had since May 2010: 9,000+. Please let me know in what way we can improve this site, to the limits of my income resources.
I will do my best, as time allows. Most visitors are from the U. S., but other countries with visitors are primarily
Canada, China, Great Britain, France, Poland, and Mexico. Iceland has "popped up" recently!
Cynthia
Cynthia Cirile |  |  | Cynthia Cirile--POE SCHOLAR;
SCREENWRITER; NOVELIST
Female
101 years old
Los Angeles, California
United States
Last Login: 12/14/2010
| | | | View My: Pics |
|
Professor Cirile and I have been in communication for
a couple of years. I forget how she came upon so obscure a web site about Edgar Allan Poe in Scotland as mine, but she
has since written a book in which she quotes from my pages, and gave me the honor of a citation. Unlike others, especially in
Scotland, who have used my material, but failed to cite my project as the source, Cynthia follows our American
academic tradition of citing sources of information. Although not all American scholars and writers on Poe give credit
and cite where due, as many have Hervey Allen's book, Israfel. Nevertheless, she has an overwhelming collection
of information and graphics on her web pages, and I simply invite my visitors who want to know more about her up-coming book,
The Mysteries of Edgar Allan Poe, to visit her site, and be informed of the publication of her next
book. Her book is a departure from the Poe cannon, in which his texts are treated by Professors and Scholars of
American and other literatures. Cirile features Poe's women! I have only hinted at the need for this area of research
about Poe's life and works, which we discovered during our surveys through Scotland. Her personal web sites are simply
overwhelming with their information. Moreover, her personal activities in furtherance of Poe scholarship, such as screen
plays, articles, and friendships is humbling. As a post script, I learned only today, 10 January 2011, that Professor
is well known in Poe scholarship, which is evident with her list of "Thank yous" to those listed in her publishers'
web pages. Consequently, she needs no assistance nor information about Poe form me!
 |
While it is flattering to have one's photograph and reference of our having been
to the Irvine Church cemetary, as The Scotsman Magazine illustration depicting Master Poe, used in these pages,
this local newspaper reporter did not extend us the courtesy of a credit in the use of Kenmotsu's photograph, nor a citation
as to the source of it, and our project which has been broadcast on BBC Scotland Radio. Local Scots would know they
do not dress as the author has in his black leathere jacket, but we found that Scots do not usually mention us as their source
when they develope otherwise novel and unique news of local history. Nevertheless, we had many folk in and around Ayrshire who were direct assistance
in the acquisition of data and new insights into Edgar Allan Poe's connection with that shire. I shall begin the following
list, and as time permits, will ad others. These wonderful people are listed in no particular order. Mr. Frank Beattie, Staff Reporter of the Kilmarnock
Standard newspaper, and local historian, with many books on the area to his credit; Billy Kay, local Irvine historian, with intimate knowledge of the Allan and Poe sites, including the cemetary;
Sharon Smith, Ardrassan local historian and professional genealogist, who found the local records of Poes in Ayrshire;
Mr. Al Aimone, Archivist, Library at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, who allowed full access to its
library; Irene McCart, born in Saltcoats, lay geneologist, and now resident
of Germany, provided the John Poe Family Tree, from 1655, Kilmarnock; Mark
Strachan, Senior Museum Assistant, Saltcoats-Arrossan Museum, Ayrshire, enthusiastically assisted with the Poe-Allan headstone;
James Gracie, author of "Edgar Allan Poe's Scottish Connections," in Scots Magazine, and radio host of Travel
and History, for BBC Scotland Radio;
Bobby Kirk, Archivist, Dundonald Parish Church, who disclosed an unknown fact of
the church's Holy Communion pewter set, and more;
Anne Geddes, former Head Librarian, Reserve Section, The Dick Institute,
Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, gave valuable access to local research.
|
|
In 2010 I purchased John J. Moran, M. D.'s, Edgar Allan Poe, a Defense of Edgar Allan Poe,
published in 1885, 35 years after Poe's death. I realized during the reading of this fine, brief volume that oh,
so many biographers and other writers, who would presume to have a superior insight and knowledge into the man, Poe, and his
literary product, have stated comments that they expect one to accept as fact, or the most plausible statement of the poet's
life. This study has shown us that they were simply guessing, and doing a very poor job of it, or lying.
If Edgar Allan Poe were alive to bring a cause of action against many who guessed incorrectly, or lied, what
a different reputation our great American thinker and writer would enjoy. As a former California police detective, private
investigator, and lawyer, with university work in the study of the American and English language and literature, I hold to
my own findings and views, with exceptions, where noted in my own biolgraphy, about Poe's Scottish Connections. Doctor
Moran's book is still available on the Internet from time to time, recently on eBay. Unfortunately, I have never
seen it other than at the Burns Museum in Irvine, Ayrshire, where Grace kenmotsu first recorded its existence, as
well as made a complete list of every publication on Poe in the Hogg Room. At the time I did not know john Galt,
and failed to understand the importance of his life and work upon his nephew, Mar'sa Eddie (Master Allan).
As one looks at the photograph of
Edgar Allan Poe, above, it is almost impossible to comprehend that he was nearly starving. In the last years of his life,
he scarcely had enough food daily to sustain strength, much less the rudiments of a standard of living that one requires of
academic thought, literary creativity, and profound thinking and writing. Yet how judgemental all have been of him because
he drank a little wine, and engaged in other human activities and behavior, regarded by many as "vises." The
comments and pretensions of such ignorant persons are fully addressed in our book.
I regret that a search of "Edgar Allan Poe" in
the search engines, such as Google and AOL, do not reveal the presence of our pages. One must use the specific words
of our URL: http://www.poeinscotland.com. Nevertheless, sometimes the information that we have is connected to other websites. When I created this project,
I was not knowledgable about the Internet, and did not think to acquire a domain name that included something of
Poe than what we have. I have since purchased other domain names that do have the full name of Edgar Allan Poe, such as the
edgarallanpoecannon,and so on. For our purposes, and budget, www.poeinscotland.com is adequate for the present. |
