The Fifth Author

As with my last post (and, soon, my last post will follow), this entry will be shortened for time purposes. 

How Her Life Was

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Massachusetts. She had a fairly normal childhood, and was actually a member of one of the most notable families in the area. Her parents were both involved members of the university. 

She completed her primary schooling and then attended Amherst Academy and a seminary, but dropped out of both.

She spent almost her entire life inside of her parents house from then on. Her suspected agoraphobia became worse as the years wore on. As far as her romantic life, there were many suspected interests but she was never married and none of these suspects were ever proven.

She died of kidney disease in 1886, and it was after this that her poems were found by her sister and published by a family friend. 

How Her Life Could Have Been

Again with this author, she did not really have any traumatic events that could have been avoided if she had been born in modern times. The most notable differences actually lie in her behavior.

In her time, she was allowed to stay in her family's house and display characteristics of what we now know to be agoraphobia. She did not willingly leave her house almost ever, and was extremely reclusive. There were other famous people of her time that had even visited her house and had still not met her. In today's society, we would have recognized the agoraphobia, and seeing as her family was quite reputable, there is a good chance that they would have had her receive appropriate psychological counseling. 

The Fourth Author

For time purposes, my next few posts must be shortened considerably. To some of you who have been reading my blog, this will come as a disappointment. For others who were looking for a quick but interesting read, maybe this will come as a relief. 

How His Life Was

Clark Ashton Smith was born on January 13, 1983 in Auburn, California. He was an only child, and contracted scarlet fever as a small child, causing health problems for years. He did manage to help his father build their four bedroom house, though.

Smith never finished school. He never even started high school. Instead, with the approval of his parents, he was self-educated and was known to have read the encyclopedia through at least twice, and to have read through the entire Oxford dictionary. With educational devices such as this, although he was not formally educated, he was a very well-educated man. 

He expressed himself through many different forms, but his top three forms were poetry, short weird fiction pieces, and sculpture. He worked with authors such as H.P. Lovecraft.

He married and spent the remainder of his life with his wife and her children by his hometown, and passed away peacefully in 1961.

How His Life Could Have Been

Clark did not have an exceptionally hard life, from what I have read. There would not be very much difference between what he experienced then and what might have experienced now. The only really notable example is with the scarlet fever. I'm not sure if scarlet fever is still around today, but if it is, it is not mainstream. I, for one, have never known someone who has it. So he may not have been as sickly during his childhood. Whether or not this would have encouraged him to stay in public school, I do not know. He still may have elected to be homeschooled, which is a perfectly fine option even in today's society.

The Third Author

How His Life Was

On June 24, 1842 in Meigs County, Ohio, Ambrose Gwinnet Bierce was born. He was the youngest of 13 children, all having been given names beginning with "A". His family lived in a log cabin, and, at the age of 17, he left his family there to become a "devil's printer" (or, writer for an abolitionist newspaper).  

Bierce came from a family history of military involvement, and so when the Civil War began in 1860, he immediately joined the Indiana 9th Volunteers. In 1864, though, he received a serious head injury and was unable to continue his service. During his time in the military, his long-time sweetheart also broke off their engagement. Many believe that this period of time greatly contributed to his famous cynicism. 

After the army, he decided that he wanted a life of journalism, and got a regular job as the "Town Crier" for San Francisco's News Letters. His cynicism, wit, and skill quickly gained him notoriety, and he courted and married a local socialite, Mary Ellen Day. 

As a wedding gift, the couple moved to England for a good deal of time where Bierce continued his journalism career. While they were there, his two sons (Day and Leigh) in 1872 and 1874. He also began writing his first books. 

The family moved back to San Francisco in 1875, and shortly after, his daughter, Molly, was born. He became the editor of a newspaper and continued writing "Prattle" columns for both it and another paper.

In 1888, Bierce separated from his wife after his found "improper" letters to her from an admirer. Then in 1809, his oldest son, Day, was killed during an argument over a woman. Bierce then began to write more books, as well as articles for a political newspaper that was strongly against the railroad companies of the time. Unfortunately, in 1901, his second son, Leigh, died of pneumonia related to alcoholism. His now estranged wife filed for divorce in 1904 due to "abandonment", but she died the next year before the divorce was finalized.

Bierce's death, to this day, remains a mystery, although it is generally thought to have occurred around 1914. He apparently arranged all of his affairs as though he were going on an extended trip or even for a "permanent trip", we'll say. Then, his daughter received a vague letter from him from Mexico, and he was never seen or heard from again. There are many theories surrounding his disappearance, ranging from having committed suicide shortly after the letter was sent to being killed by hostile forces in Mexico to becoming an unnamed "old Gringo adviser" to the Mexican rebels to even having checked himself into an asylum. An official search petitioned by his daughter never yielded any results, though, and so we cannot verify any of these claims. 

How His Life Could Have Been Today

I would say "Let's start from the beginning", but honestly, his beginning years seem like they would have gone very similarly had he been born in modern times. He was born to a large family, and I know plenty of families who have 13 children or even more. The only thing that I can think of is that, when he went to write for the abolitionist paper, he probably wouldn't have been said to be working for the "Devil's Printer". Also, it wouldn't have been about abolition, as we don't have slavery in modern day America. It more likely would have been about the Iraq war. Which is probably also where his military career would have taken him, if not to Afghanistan. That being said, though... Unless he was in a currently hostile zone (not all of the zones that our troops are deployed to are currently hostile, and I know troops who finished their tours and did not see combat at all), he would not have seen firsthand the types of carnage that his famous cynicism is attributed to. That may take away the inspiration for some of his writings. At the same time, maybe he was just a naturally cynical person.

Once he was deployed from the army, he began journalism. He may have received more fame for his writings, as information and media are more accessible today. I kind of imagine him as being like Lewis Black. 

As for the situation with his wife, it is common place today for women to receive letters from admirers. Now, though, we don't base the woman's faithfulness on whether or not somebody else sent her a letter. It depends more on how she handled the situation and if she replied. So his marriage may have been salvaged. 

I don't know the details of the fight over the woman that led to his first son's death. I would like to say that it would not have happened in today's age, but that kind of thing does still happen. I can only say that maybe the circumstances surrounding the event would not have been as big of a deal today, and so maybe the fight would not have escalated to where it did.

His second son's death, though, could have easily been prevented. I keep touching on the wonders of modern medicine in my blogs because it's just that - wonderful. Not only do we have countless programs to help people deal with their alcoholism, but we also have the medical care necessary to help someone combat pneumonia that might have arisen from it. If he didn't recover, I'm sure it still would've eventually killed him, but I think that he would've had more of a chance if he had lived today.

Finally, let's look at Bierce's "death". With all of our technological advances, it's nearly impossible for someone of note to just decide to disappear one day. It happens, sure, but we can still usually trace up to nearly the exact moment when they actually went missing (right when they were kidnapped, killed, made it to the plastic surgeon to change their face, etc). So I feel as though we probably wouldn't have as much mystery surrounding his death. Especially because he had gained national notoriety. If Ellen DeGeneres tried to go missing, how long would it take us to find her? Not long, I'd imagine. 

The Second Author

How His Life Was

For my second posting, I have decided to cover the life of Edgar Allen Poe. (This will also be a substantially shorter post than my last, as I am racing the death of my computer's battery, and it doesn't help that many details of his life have been blurred since his death).

Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston. He had two siblings, Henry and Rosalie. His parents were actors, which was considered a very lowly job at the time. His father ran out on the family, and then by the age of three his mother passed away. It was at this point that a successful merchant, John Allan, allowed Poe to come and live with him and his wife. Allan did not seem to ever really bond very well with Poe, as Poe was more focused on poetry than he was on business. Perhaps because of this lack of a bond, Allan was never willing to help Poe financially. When Poe went to college at the University of Virginia in 1826, Allan only paid about a third of the difference. This was the point in which Poe began his life-long addictions to both gambling and drinking (and, consequently, debt). 

After dropping out of college and then again leaving the Allan's home (there is supposedly some kind of heartbreak that had a good deal to do with his leaving), he both began publishing works and he joined the army. He began to attend a military academy, West Point, before being kicked out for "handling his duties poorly". Some speculate that he did this on purpose due to financial strain and, again, a lack of help from Allan. After he left the academy, he began focusing on his writing full-time. 

During this time, he traveled around between New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond before deciding to stay with his aunt in Baltimore. It was there that he met his cousin, Virginia. He married her when he was aged 27 and she was 13 (some sources will say that she was 14, but records indicate that her 14th birthday was a couple of months after their wedding). They returned to Richmond where Poe was hired as a critic for a magazine, but he did not stay on long due to his combative personality and a strained relationship with the publication. 

In 1847, his wife passed away. He was consumed by grief, and, while he continued to work, he was unhealthy and he still struggled with finances. This is where his story gets quite hazy. It is known tha the left Richmond on September 27, 1849 to supposedly head to Philadelphia. But, on October 3, he was found in Baltimore. He was in a state of great distress, and so he was taken to a hospital. He died four days later on October 7, and his last words were, "Lord, help my poor soul". Nobody is quite sure what he died of, although at the time it was labeled "congestion of the brain". Others believe that it may have been anything from carbon monoxide poisoning to rabies. 

How His Life Would Have Been Today

Now, it's time to break down the major events of his life to see how it could have gone differently if he had lived in modern times. Let's start with his parents.

While in the early 1800's actors were looked down upon as being one of the lowest rungs of society's ladder, today a successful actor is praised and raised up to celebrity status. So, if they had been successful, then his parents might not have been poor, he may not have been mocked for their profession, and without the financial burden, they may not have separated. If all of that had been true, then he would have gone to live with his father when his mother passed away, and might never have even met Allan, let alone been raised by him. 

Next, let's look at his college life. There are countless scholarships and grants available today that make a higher level education possible for many of us who would not be able to afford it otherwise. With his intelligence and his high marks, I feel positive that he would have qualified for enough to pay at least most of the cost of his schooling (that is, if his parents weren't rich famous actors with enough money to pay for the best schools available out of pocket). Without the difficulty of his financial strain, he would not have as easily fallen into his cycle of debt and gambling and alcohol abuse. He may have found his way to it anyway, but it might not have happened so early or so easily. 

Now, his wife. I love Poe's works. They're amazing. But I've always found this whole deal with his wife... Pretty gross. If he had been born into today's society, there is NO WAY that would've flown (outside of travelling to some backwoods area where nobody knew or cared, anyway). First, it's illegal to marry your first cousins now. Second, it's definitely illegal to marry a 13 year old. So his "Darling Virginia", would've just been his cousin that he would see at Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Now, I didn't mention it in the previous explanation of how his life went, but a lot of the people close to him kept passing away and it's believed to be of tuberculosis. With modern medicine being the way that it is, we now know that many diseases (TB included) can attach themselves to certain hosts who are not affected by the disease but are able to spread it. They're called carriers. With as many TB related deaths around him as there were, a now popular theory is that he was actually a carrier for it. With modern medicine, we would have been able to tell that this was going on, and we would have been able to take care of it. There's a reason you don't see very much of it today. 

And with that, you have the end of this blog entry. Would his life have been better if he had been born today? I'd like to say that it probably would have. But, then again, we might not have all of his works that so many of us love. Was the sacrifice of his health and virility and, eventually, his life worth it? I don't think that I'm qualified to answer that.

An Exceptional Influence on the American Horror Genre

An Introduction

First and foremost, since this is my first posting in this blog, I feel the need to give a brief explanation of what it's going to be about.

There were many, many influential authors born before 1900. In this blog, I will look at the events of their lives. Then, I will compare these events to how their lives COULD have gone if they had been born in the modern day instead of when they were.

The First Author

His Life as it was When he Lived

The first author that I'm going to look at, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, was an exceptional influence on the American horror genre. He inspired many, even some big names such as Stephen King. 

"I think it is beyond doubt that [he] has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." - Stephen King

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (more commonly referred to simply as H.P. Lovecraft, the creator of Cthulu) was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 20, 1890. When he was around three years old, his father suffered from a "mental breakdown" that caused him to be hospitalized for five years, at which point he passed away. Surviving medical evidence shows signs that he actually suffered from syphilis. As a result of his father's death, Lovecraft spent an extended period of time with his maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren. 

Lovecraft had always had an interest in writings: he could recite poetry by the age of two and he was able to read by the age of three. He adopted his first pseudonym ("Abdul Alhazred", which is also a well-known name, even today) by the age of five. At the age of seven, he wrote a paraphrase of the Odyssey in 88 lines of rhyming verse. 

He also had the experience of being a sickly child growing up, causing him to frequently be absent from school. (If you ask me, that makes it even more impressive that his literary skills developed as well as they did!) His grandfather also contributed greatly to his love of literature, and more particularly, his love of "weird fiction". Van Buren was known to recite oral weird tales to Lovecraft in the gothic mode at a very young age. 

Because of his frequent absences from school, though, he suffered in his studies of math. Originally, he had wanted to be an astrologer, but his skill level and grades were not high enough for him to achieve this. In addition to the sixty short stories and three short novels of horror genre tales that he wrote during his career, he also dabbled throughout his life with amateur journalism, and he kept up to date on scientific discoveries (he was reported to be "momentarily disturbed" by Einstein's relativity theory and Planck's quantum theory). 

He married Sonia Haft in 1924, but he was unable to find work in New York (despite professional references from names such as Harry Houdini, whom he had ghostwritten a story), and Haft's health soon gave way. Once she had recovered, she took a series of jobs in the Midwest and only returned to New York periodically, leaving Lovecraft to live alone in an apartment in the slums. Finally, he went to live with his aunts in Providence, who were not fond of Lovecraft's wife, and refused to let her visit. She filed for divorce in 1929, but Lovecraft never actually signed the papers. There were also rumors of part of the problem with their marriage being due to his "sluggish sexuality".

He spent the next several years writing, traveling around the Eastern coast, and helping to nurture new writers. When his aunt died, he moved in with his other aunt. His stories were no longer selling, so it was a time of hardship. At this point, he developed intestinal cancer, which he died from on March 15, 1937. 

His Life as it Might Have Been if he had Lived Today

Now, it's time to take a look at these various events in his life and see how they might have turned out different if he had lived in modern times. First, let's look at his dad. In the late 1800's, they apparently did not have treatments for syphilis and would just let it run its course (causing insanity and then death). In today's society, we have tests that quickly and accurately identify this disease, along with treatments that effectively cure them. With this kind of technology, his father would not have died when Lovecraft was so young.

If his father had not died, then he may not have spent as much time with Van Buren, and he may never have developed his fascination with the horror genre. Then we would not have his many, popular works. Additionally, those inspired by his works would not have had the same inspiration. Stephen King may never have been inspired to write all of his popular works, and what would we do without the murderous clown, It? Although, it is very possible that he may have just picked up his interest when he would visit his grandfather. And Stephen King may have picked up influence from somewhere else. 

Next, let's look at his chronic illnesses and his difficulties in high school. He would have had access to modern medicine, and current technologies. Even if his afflictions had been those that we still do not have cures, we have technologies available to us now that would have enabled him to keep current on his schoolwork, and to keep from falling behind. Taking this into consideration, he may have been able to hone his math skills and keep his grade high enough that he would have been able to pursue a career in astrology as he had originally aspired to do. Again, this brings us back to wondering whether or not his works would ever have been created, and what the repercussions would be if they were not. 

Now, I'm going to address the final two issues together. Firstly, even if he had not moved to Chicago to take an editor position (if I didn't mention it earlier, he was offered a position as an editor but refused on the grounds that he did not want to move away from New York, where his wife was), he would have been able to work with their magazine. Now we have email, and it allows us instant communication of works across the entire world. So, he would have been able to actively participate in the magazine from half the country away, and he would not have been out of work. Secondly, without the financial strain, there would not have been as much stress on his marriage. She might not have had to be hospitalized for her illnesses, and she might not have decided to travel for work upon her release. And, if he really did have problems with his "sluggish sexuality", we now have tests to determine if it would be because of a hormonal imbalance (low testosterone, for instance, which could easily be treated with a hormonal supplement), and if not, there are now aids that would have helped him in that area anyway.

The Final Word

This is how his life could have been different if he had lived today. It's not to say that it would have been better, although for the most part, he would probably have enjoyed a higher quality of life. Either way, it would be up to his personal preference on whether or not he would actually consider it better. One thing that we can almost assume, though, is that without his hardships, he may never have provided the inspirational works that he did.