News
After Court Restores Research Funding, Trump Still Has Paths to Target Harvard
News
‘Honestly, I’m Fine with It’: Eliot Residents Settle In to the Inn as Renovations Begin
News
He Represented Paul Toner. Now, He’s the Fundraising Frontrunner in Cambridge’s Municipal Elections.
News
Harvard College Laundry Prices Increase by 25 Cents
News
DOJ Sues Boston and Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 Over Sanctuary City Policy
Thornton N. Wilder, Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, portrayed Edgar Allen Poe as a "detective, criminal, and victim" in Sanders Theatre last night. This was the initial talk of a second series of Charles Eliot Norton lectures.
Wilder's speech was not primarily a description of Poe's sufferings, for "they do not make his writings one jot better. . . . Intellects are not made by suffering," Rather, he described the writer "in and for himself," by looking at various examples of his work "as facets of his emanation."
He termed Poe as a "real lion-tamer, he is only happy among real lions." Wilder discussed the degree of Poe's merit, his control, "which he did not always maintain," and his interest in the mind as the instrument of understanding.
Poe was a gambler, and "gambling, like bridge, is always an example of intelligence unfocused." As a detective he challenged the world to invent codes he could not decipher.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.