Henry Poe and the Macedonian Myth

Abstract Arthur Hobson Quinn dismissed William Henry Leonard Poe as “a rather shadowy figure who was never of any real help to his brother.” Little work has been done to augment Henry Poe’s biography since Quinn delivered that harsh verdict more than eight decades ago. This article shines some additional light on the shadowy life of Edgar Allan Poe’s older brother. First, it debunks one of the few biographical details purportedly known about him: that he served in the U.S. Navy aboard the frigate USS Macedonian. Henry Poe almost certainly never served aboard that ship or in the U.S. Navy. Rather, his nautical experience was probably in the merchant marine. Newly discovered evidence of Henry Poe’s final years reveals that he was declared insolvent in 1828 and worked as an auctioneer in Maryland and the District of Columbia from at least 1829 until his death in 1831. The article also cites two of Henry Poe’s works that scholars have previously omitted from his bibliography and reprints one of them—a poem published in 1828. The resulting revised and expanded understanding of Henry Poe’s biography warrants fresh analysis of his influence on his younger brother’s life and work.