Adventures with Poe and Hawthorne

Abstract

Abstract Scholarship can be exciting, and so can the story behind the scholarship. This essay—in its earlier incarnation, a talk—recounts my explorations involving Poe's Dupin stories (1987–91; 2004–8) and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1992–2003), work that led to The Threads of “The Scarlet Letter” (2003) and Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries (2008, 2011). My scholarly peregrinations took me from Nantucket to Colindale, England (for Poe), and from Salem to San Marino, California (for Hawthorne). My adventures involved identifying and following a trail of evidence, assisted by librarians and curators and sometimes-surprising serendipity. These adventures led to interpretive consequences concerning the genesis, form, and significance of a work. This essay conveys firsthand the pleasures of scholarly pursuit.