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.
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