What do you think?
Rate this book
The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City
How four American cities shaped Poe's life and writings
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) changed residences about once a year throughout his life. Driven by a desire for literary success and the pressures of supporting his family, Poe sought work in American magazines, living in the cities that produced them. Scott Peeples chronicles Poe's rootless life in the cities, neighborhoods, and rooms where he lived and worked, exploring how each new place left its enduring mark on the writer and his craft.
Poe wrote short stories, poems, journalism, and editorials with urban readers in mind. He witnessed urban slavery up close, living and working within a few blocks of slave jails and auction houses in Richmond and among enslaved workers in Baltimore. In Philadelphia, he saw an expanding city struggling to contain its own violent propensities. At a time when suburbs were just beginning to offer an alternative to crowded city dwellings, he tried living cheaply on the then-rural Upper West Side of Manhattan, and later in what is now the Bronx. Poe's urban mysteries and claustrophobic tales of troubled minds and abused bodies reflect his experiences living among the soldiers, slaves, and immigrants of the American city.
Featuring evocative photographs by Michelle Van Parys, The Man of the Crowd challenges the popular conception of Poe as an isolated artist living in a world of his own imagination, detached from his physical surroundings. The Poe who emerges here is a man whose outlook and career were shaped by the cities where he lived, longing for a stable home.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) changed residences about once a year throughout his life. Driven by a desire for literary success and the pressures of supporting his family, Poe sought work in American magazines, living in the cities that produced them. Scott Peeples chronicles Poe's rootless life in the cities, neighborhoods, and rooms where he lived and worked, exploring how each new place left its enduring mark on the writer and his craft.
Poe wrote short stories, poems, journalism, and editorials with urban readers in mind. He witnessed urban slavery up close, living and working within a few blocks of slave jails and auction houses in Richmond and among enslaved workers in Baltimore. In Philadelphia, he saw an expanding city struggling to contain its own violent propensities. At a time when suburbs were just beginning to offer an alternative to crowded city dwellings, he tried living cheaply on the then-rural Upper West Side of Manhattan, and later in what is now the Bronx. Poe's urban mysteries and claustrophobic tales of troubled minds and abused bodies reflect his experiences living among the soldiers, slaves, and immigrants of the American city.
Featuring evocative photographs by Michelle Van Parys, The Man of the Crowd challenges the popular conception of Poe as an isolated artist living in a world of his own imagination, detached from his physical surroundings. The Poe who emerges here is a man whose outlook and career were shaped by the cities where he lived, longing for a stable home.
224 pages, Paperback
Published April 25, 2023
9 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 28, 2022
A very good short topical biography of Poe, examining his life and work in the light of the cities where he lived. Would pair well with The Reason for the Darkness of the Night, by John Tresch.
"[T]his study of Poe is a study of his context, and works as a striking dual character sketch: of urban America in the first half of the 19th century—striving, rumbustious, commercial, confidently opinionated, prone to both grandeur and petty strife, and not a little dingy even in its better quarters—and of Poe himself, with all of the same adjectives applying."
Full review at the blog.
"[T]his study of Poe is a study of his context, and works as a striking dual character sketch: of urban America in the first half of the 19th century—striving, rumbustious, commercial, confidently opinionated, prone to both grandeur and petty strife, and not a little dingy even in its better quarters—and of Poe himself, with all of the same adjectives applying."
Full review at the blog.
February 28, 2023
This is an absolutely stunning biography of Poe; meticulously researched and a fascinating critical analysis of how the places he lived affected his work. A must read for any Poe fan. I learned a lot; this may be one of the best biographies of him I’ve read.
November 22, 2020
I only knew Edgar Allan Poe from what I read in school. Sure, I enjoyed "The Tell-Tale Heart," and as a guy who grew up in Charleston, I was fascinated about how Poe had written "The Gold Bug" while stationed on Sullivan's Island at Fort Moultrie, a mothballed spot I adventured in as a curious kid. That was really it. Then, I picked up "The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City," the biography by Scott Peeples, and I discovered much more about a man I saw as simply a recognizable face on a coffee mug.
Peeples, a Poe scholar and a professor at College of Charleston, spent six years researching and writing "The Man of the Crowd." It shows. He dispels the idea I've always had of Poe as this talented loner who steered clear of people and places.
Not by a long shot.
Peeples unveils for us a man molded by the world he lived in and uses the perspective of an urban planner to show us how that happened. The growing urbanization of America in the 19th century did help Poe find the plots and characters of his stories. I assumed that. But the growing urbanization we have read about for years also fueled his insatiable drive to push his talent, publish his own magazine, challenge rivals to a duel and chase women he longed to marry.
Quite the modern-day soap opera, complete with classic conflict that would fit well with any of today's film. Who knew? I didn't.
Poe roamed from city to city -- Richmond and Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia. He wrote, drank, called in favors, scraped constantly for money, ran from bill collectors and skewered people with his acerbic pen. In the introduction, Peeples writes: "Poe was not so much uprooted as unrooted." So true.
Yet, what surprised me was this: The more I dove into "The Man of the Crowd," the more I realized Poe reminds me as a 21st century Internet troll. In the 19th century, even as his popularity grew, particularly after the publication of "The Raven," Poe assailed magazine publishers he saw as his enemy. And he was vicious. You see that in the Poe's written excerpts Peeples uses. And Poe did it so often it hurt what he was pursuing -- fame and popularity. He longed for the public spotlight, no matter how that spotlight tainted him.
So, Poe is far from a face on a coffee mug I recognize. Thanks to Peeples' book, I see him as a man struggling to provide for his family and make it in his world. That, we all know, is timeless.
"The Man of the Crowd" is a page turner for the Poe fan and even the reader with the slightest Poe interest like me. The reason is how Peeples has approached his subject. A meticulous researcher with a novelist eye for detail, Peeples takes you chronologically through Poe's life through the cities he lived in and gives you the context you need to understand how Poe came to be. In his introduction, Peeples writes:
"His legacy in literature and popular culture is wide ranging and profound, yet in his lifetime, he must have felt that he never quite made it. He achieved fame and admiration for his writing, but he never gained control over his career. He found and held on to a loving family, but he never found a place to rest. Wherever he was, it was no place like home."
Peeples makes Poe come alive, and the black-and-white photos from photographer Michelle Van Parys helps you visualize through her present-day lens where Poe lived and how he's remembered (Do so love that sculpture in Boston). And for us readers, that is a beautiful gift.
We get to see Poe as more than just the character we all found in our high school English class. He is a lot like many of us -- flawed, insecure, emotionally scarred, working hard to keep his personal demons in check.
Some of us succeed. In the end, Poe didn't. Still, look what he left behind. We're all better for it.
Peeples, a Poe scholar and a professor at College of Charleston, spent six years researching and writing "The Man of the Crowd." It shows. He dispels the idea I've always had of Poe as this talented loner who steered clear of people and places.
Not by a long shot.
Peeples unveils for us a man molded by the world he lived in and uses the perspective of an urban planner to show us how that happened. The growing urbanization of America in the 19th century did help Poe find the plots and characters of his stories. I assumed that. But the growing urbanization we have read about for years also fueled his insatiable drive to push his talent, publish his own magazine, challenge rivals to a duel and chase women he longed to marry.
Quite the modern-day soap opera, complete with classic conflict that would fit well with any of today's film. Who knew? I didn't.
Poe roamed from city to city -- Richmond and Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia. He wrote, drank, called in favors, scraped constantly for money, ran from bill collectors and skewered people with his acerbic pen. In the introduction, Peeples writes: "Poe was not so much uprooted as unrooted." So true.
Yet, what surprised me was this: The more I dove into "The Man of the Crowd," the more I realized Poe reminds me as a 21st century Internet troll. In the 19th century, even as his popularity grew, particularly after the publication of "The Raven," Poe assailed magazine publishers he saw as his enemy. And he was vicious. You see that in the Poe's written excerpts Peeples uses. And Poe did it so often it hurt what he was pursuing -- fame and popularity. He longed for the public spotlight, no matter how that spotlight tainted him.
So, Poe is far from a face on a coffee mug I recognize. Thanks to Peeples' book, I see him as a man struggling to provide for his family and make it in his world. That, we all know, is timeless.
"The Man of the Crowd" is a page turner for the Poe fan and even the reader with the slightest Poe interest like me. The reason is how Peeples has approached his subject. A meticulous researcher with a novelist eye for detail, Peeples takes you chronologically through Poe's life through the cities he lived in and gives you the context you need to understand how Poe came to be. In his introduction, Peeples writes:
"His legacy in literature and popular culture is wide ranging and profound, yet in his lifetime, he must have felt that he never quite made it. He achieved fame and admiration for his writing, but he never gained control over his career. He found and held on to a loving family, but he never found a place to rest. Wherever he was, it was no place like home."
Peeples makes Poe come alive, and the black-and-white photos from photographer Michelle Van Parys helps you visualize through her present-day lens where Poe lived and how he's remembered (Do so love that sculpture in Boston). And for us readers, that is a beautiful gift.
We get to see Poe as more than just the character we all found in our high school English class. He is a lot like many of us -- flawed, insecure, emotionally scarred, working hard to keep his personal demons in check.
Some of us succeed. In the end, Poe didn't. Still, look what he left behind. We're all better for it.
January 4, 2021
2020-11 – The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City. Scott Peeples (Author) 2020. 224 Pages.
I saw an ad for this book and talk the author was giving via the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. I have yet to hear the talk but Nicholle straight away ordered a signed copy of the book through the Poe Museum. I read this book in two days. I have a normal interest in the Edgar A Poe … his life and works. What I was more intrigued by was that this book would be an exploration of time, place, and society. How those factors shaped the man and his writings. The US in the 1830’s and 1840’s was a tumultuous place. Mass urbanization was occurring even as US society spread ever westward. Charles Brockden Brown had pioneered American Gothic blending rural and urban scenes. Poe was following in the path laid by Brown pushing more and more like George Lippard into the city mystery genre … urban Gothic. Poe spent the majority of his life living in teaming, dank, bustling urban environments. These environment seep into his stories as the setting and backdrop. In Poe’s works they almost have a life of their own. This book then is more than just about Edgar A. Poe the man and his works. This book is really about life in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA in the early 19th century. About labor, sanitation, architecture, social norms, hierarchy, a nation establishing its identity across broad fronts. The book is well presented and researched. It provides an entry for deeper and wider exploration of this formative time in US culture and letters.
I saw an ad for this book and talk the author was giving via the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. I have yet to hear the talk but Nicholle straight away ordered a signed copy of the book through the Poe Museum. I read this book in two days. I have a normal interest in the Edgar A Poe … his life and works. What I was more intrigued by was that this book would be an exploration of time, place, and society. How those factors shaped the man and his writings. The US in the 1830’s and 1840’s was a tumultuous place. Mass urbanization was occurring even as US society spread ever westward. Charles Brockden Brown had pioneered American Gothic blending rural and urban scenes. Poe was following in the path laid by Brown pushing more and more like George Lippard into the city mystery genre … urban Gothic. Poe spent the majority of his life living in teaming, dank, bustling urban environments. These environment seep into his stories as the setting and backdrop. In Poe’s works they almost have a life of their own. This book then is more than just about Edgar A. Poe the man and his works. This book is really about life in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA in the early 19th century. About labor, sanitation, architecture, social norms, hierarchy, a nation establishing its identity across broad fronts. The book is well presented and researched. It provides an entry for deeper and wider exploration of this formative time in US culture and letters.
November 30, 2020
This is a view of Poe that is quite unique and quite revealing. Woven into the stories of the cities that Poe lived in, on and off, throughout his adult life, are the back stories of a man who was abandoned, either by death or by disgust, by just about everyone who mattered in his life, and how that impacted him throughout his life.
Cities are great places to hide even when you're trying to find work. They, even in the 1800's, offered an anonymity that rural settings didn't. You could move from place to place (one step ahead of late rent or an outstanding warrant) stealthily and you could still pursue your dreams.
Poe's trek through four cities shows him at his best and at his worst. At worst, Poe handled his pervasive sense of abandonment with a self-destructive aggression and anger that kept him further and further from achieving his dreams. Plagued by binge drinking (when Poe wasn't in the heart of a city, he could maintain sobriety, but as soon as he got inside the cities he lived in, with the proliferation of bars, he could not), Poe became known as unreliable and unstable.
Dr. Peeples has done a great job of digging into a Poe that may surprise you, but who, as always, will continue to fascinate you.
Cities are great places to hide even when you're trying to find work. They, even in the 1800's, offered an anonymity that rural settings didn't. You could move from place to place (one step ahead of late rent or an outstanding warrant) stealthily and you could still pursue your dreams.
Poe's trek through four cities shows him at his best and at his worst. At worst, Poe handled his pervasive sense of abandonment with a self-destructive aggression and anger that kept him further and further from achieving his dreams. Plagued by binge drinking (when Poe wasn't in the heart of a city, he could maintain sobriety, but as soon as he got inside the cities he lived in, with the proliferation of bars, he could not), Poe became known as unreliable and unstable.
Dr. Peeples has done a great job of digging into a Poe that may surprise you, but who, as always, will continue to fascinate you.
July 11, 2021
Not a criticism of the book, more of myself as not so interested in Edgar Allan Poe and his stories as i tho't i was. Too many details for me!
He had such an up down life from the beginning, later on partially bc of his weakness for alcholol. He got lucky in being a ward (much affection, altho never adopted) of the Allans. IMO, he took too much advantage of their generosity until she died and his father-figure later got fed up.
Interesting that so much of his writing was done bc of desperation for money, and less for inspiration, IMO --altho' this is probably not uncommon for composers, artists, etc.
Overdrive @ 1.25 speed
He had such an up down life from the beginning, later on partially bc of his weakness for alcholol. He got lucky in being a ward (much affection, altho never adopted) of the Allans. IMO, he took too much advantage of their generosity until she died and his father-figure later got fed up.
Interesting that so much of his writing was done bc of desperation for money, and less for inspiration, IMO --altho' this is probably not uncommon for composers, artists, etc.
Overdrive @ 1.25 speed
September 22, 2021
Clever and compelling! Man of the Crowd was a fresh and objective take on Poe's life, demystifying his career and adding interesting context to his works. The photos were also stunning and very much enhanced my reading experience. I'm also biased since I attended the debut book talk and attend the College of Charleston but hey nothing to see there.
October 15, 2023
I am a fan of Mr. Poe, indeed, the sort of fan who has vacationed by visiting sites he lived and so forth. Being such a fan, I have read works such as the academically sound Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography and the compelling if not perfect Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. I have joined this with the fictions that cast the man in their world, from his memorable cameo in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to his role in The Man Who Was Poe and even the compelling The Poe Shadow. I share all this to say, when it comes to Poe, I'm an easy mark when it comes to selling me a book based on his work. Peeples as author did not have to work overly hard to get me to buy the book as its author.
BUT... he did work hard. His compelling overlay of the location of Poe, what was going on in his life, and how it was echoed in his work is one of the most approachable and compelling ways to write about Poe I have read. By layering the lived experience of Poe over the city in which he lived, the author gives us a compelling consideration of Poe as the unsettled author, who never seems at home in multiple ways. Moreover, his considerations of how the emergence of the city in America during Poe's time and how that is echoed throughout Poe's work becomes a thread that makes the work all the more compelling. Poe's writing, at least to modern audiences, often seems set far away, yet Peeples deftly builds a historical case for how the emergence of the city and Poe's experiences in so many different locations, inclusive of Richmond, Boston, New York, et al., makes his writing what it is. From weaving his early childhood traumas to his death into a narrative of place and movement, Peeples gives us cause to consider how Poe was a man of the crowd... immersed in cities and towns, yet somehow never belonging to them fully.
BUT... he did work hard. His compelling overlay of the location of Poe, what was going on in his life, and how it was echoed in his work is one of the most approachable and compelling ways to write about Poe I have read. By layering the lived experience of Poe over the city in which he lived, the author gives us a compelling consideration of Poe as the unsettled author, who never seems at home in multiple ways. Moreover, his considerations of how the emergence of the city in America during Poe's time and how that is echoed throughout Poe's work becomes a thread that makes the work all the more compelling. Poe's writing, at least to modern audiences, often seems set far away, yet Peeples deftly builds a historical case for how the emergence of the city and Poe's experiences in so many different locations, inclusive of Richmond, Boston, New York, et al., makes his writing what it is. From weaving his early childhood traumas to his death into a narrative of place and movement, Peeples gives us cause to consider how Poe was a man of the crowd... immersed in cities and towns, yet somehow never belonging to them fully.
October 19, 2025
The Man of the Crowd is a thoughtful and well-researched look at Edgar Allan Poe and the cities that shaped his writing. Scott Peeples brings Poe’s world to life with rich detail and a clear passion for the subject. The book offers plenty of interesting insights and connections that will appeal to readers who enjoy literary history and learning more about the world behind said author’s work.
September 17, 2022
an exploration of Poe’s life through the lens of four cities he lived in (including Baltimore, of particular interest for me as a current resident). deeeeeeeply researched, more than i could appreciate, but tightly executed, with lots of interesting photographs to boot.
March 1, 2022
A bit of an eye opener regarding Poe as far as I was concerned.
June 27, 2022
While it’s not the author’s fault that Poe’s life was heartbreaking, it seems likely that the story could have been told from some more engaging viewpoint than simple geography.
December 12, 2022
Very sad and depressing life he had. After this, I am even more amazed he could have written so much.
September 4, 2023
So interesting! Lots of research, but it's very readable. Enjoyed the author's perspective and insights.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews