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The Journal of Julius Rodman
The Journal of Julius Rodman Edgar Allan Poe
66 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1840
11 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,904 books28.7k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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August 2, 2019And after a Swedish translation of an American children's book about a Native American boy, I continued with this one, that contains Native Americans as well.
I was surprised to find this gorgeous edition at a book festival in early October.
The woodcuts were amazing, the font and spacing ideal, the feeling and smell of the book just great. It also contains eight woodcuts by Mallette Dean one of which you can see here.
And that's the reason why I'm awarding this book both as an object and as a piece of literature. 4.2 stars as a story, 5 stars as an object which means 4.6 stars => 5
This is an unusual book; not as a story but as a work of literature:
1) It is written by Edgar Allan Poe but it not a story of the macabre, the supernatural, the Gothic, and the grotesque. It is an adventure story that reminded me a bit of the film with Leonardo Di Caprio The Reverent (2015).
The wild expanse of the North American nature, the sublime magic of its mountains, rivers, forests, animals. The romantic feeling of the wilderness and the many encounters with different Native American tribes. I'm honest. I love stories taking place in nature.
People were fooled by this story because it was written by Poe in such a way that it was almost like a real journal about a real traveller called Julius Rodman.
There are many footnotes and many (editorial ) interruptions, as well as an introductory note by the supposed editors of the supposed journal.
A senator was fooled by the story's realism that he created an unintended hoax concerning the story's credibility. And it's here where I recognise Poe's talent as a storyteller.
2) It was left unfinished by Poe, when he was fired from the Magazine he was working as an editor due probably to his drunkenness, or to some issues of plagiarism.
Later Poe refused to finish it. Thus, because of Poe's pigheadedness what we have is 1/3 of a novel which finishes abruptly like a road heading towards a cliff.
At the very end the expedition team is attacked by a grizzly bear and just after the attack when everyone is safe the novel ends or to be more precise stops.
I wanted more. I want someone to finish this book. I was satisfied with the story but its unfinished status left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction.
I recommend it to Greek speakers because even if you don't love the story this is a great book as an object to have in your collection by Perispomeni Publications.
I was surprised to find this gorgeous edition at a book festival in early October.
The woodcuts were amazing, the font and spacing ideal, the feeling and smell of the book just great. It also contains eight woodcuts by Mallette Dean one of which you can see here.
And that's the reason why I'm awarding this book both as an object and as a piece of literature. 4.2 stars as a story, 5 stars as an object which means 4.6 stars => 5
This is an unusual book; not as a story but as a work of literature:
1) It is written by Edgar Allan Poe but it not a story of the macabre, the supernatural, the Gothic, and the grotesque. It is an adventure story that reminded me a bit of the film with Leonardo Di Caprio The Reverent (2015).
The wild expanse of the North American nature, the sublime magic of its mountains, rivers, forests, animals. The romantic feeling of the wilderness and the many encounters with different Native American tribes. I'm honest. I love stories taking place in nature.
People were fooled by this story because it was written by Poe in such a way that it was almost like a real journal about a real traveller called Julius Rodman.
There are many footnotes and many (editorial ) interruptions, as well as an introductory note by the supposed editors of the supposed journal.
A senator was fooled by the story's realism that he created an unintended hoax concerning the story's credibility. And it's here where I recognise Poe's talent as a storyteller.
2) It was left unfinished by Poe, when he was fired from the Magazine he was working as an editor due probably to his drunkenness, or to some issues of plagiarism.
Later Poe refused to finish it. Thus, because of Poe's pigheadedness what we have is 1/3 of a novel which finishes abruptly like a road heading towards a cliff.
At the very end the expedition team is attacked by a grizzly bear and just after the attack when everyone is safe the novel ends or to be more precise stops.
I wanted more. I want someone to finish this book. I was satisfied with the story but its unfinished status left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction.
I recommend it to Greek speakers because even if you don't love the story this is a great book as an object to have in your collection by Perispomeni Publications.
September 19, 2020
Lepo je sto je Tanesi u svom (mom) izdanju uklopio Avanture Gordona Pima sa Dnevnikom Dzulijusa Rodmana. Ove dve price i te kako idu jedna sa drugom. Stim sto je potonja ostala nedovrsena iz raznoraznih razloga koji su pomenuti od strane urednika. Elem treba istaci Poovu neverovatnu sposobnost da izmiljene price ucini apsolutno realnim, toliko da da je dnevnik Dzulijusa Rodmana usao caki u drzavna dokumeta Sjedinjenih Americkih Drzava jer se za njega smatralo da je objektivno i verodostojno, odnosno istinito delo. Samim time za ovaj putopis se moze reci da je ujedno i pisceva najbolje osmisljena prevara.
August 18, 2015
This is an unfinished serial novel published between January and June 1840 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. Edgar Allan Poe was a contributing editor of that journal and, according to Wikipedia, got fired from the job in June 1840 and therefore refused to finish the novel. So all that is left are these six parts or chapters.
Described is the fictional expedition across the Western Wilderness in the year 1792 (so a few years prior to Lewis and Clark) made by Julius Rodman and his party. Mainly in the form of a diary Rodman conveys his voyage up the Missouri river heading for the Rocky Mountains. He tells about his men, the boats, weapons, equipment but most of all about the river, the landscape, plants and wildlife including the several Indian nations which are most often called "savages".
I have to say that I found the text a little boring. There are quite a few of the same or at least very similar situations with which the men have to cope. Bad weather, rapids, shoals, ferocious Indians, veracious Indians; one of the expedition members gets seriously ill, then recovers, and all kinds of animals that are either only observed or hunted. Oh, and the fish. Sometimes there are many, and sometimes there are only a few. The whole book seems a little listless to me. There's hardly any room for character development. And not one single line of actual dialog (granted it's a diary, but still).
I read the book to prepare for Zettel's Traum. According to Arno Schmidt, the second book of Zettel's Traum called In Gesellschaft von Bäumen [In company of trees] is heavily based on "Rodman" and now I'm curious on how this will turn out.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Described is the fictional expedition across the Western Wilderness in the year 1792 (so a few years prior to Lewis and Clark) made by Julius Rodman and his party. Mainly in the form of a diary Rodman conveys his voyage up the Missouri river heading for the Rocky Mountains. He tells about his men, the boats, weapons, equipment but most of all about the river, the landscape, plants and wildlife including the several Indian nations which are most often called "savages".
I have to say that I found the text a little boring. There are quite a few of the same or at least very similar situations with which the men have to cope. Bad weather, rapids, shoals, ferocious Indians, veracious Indians; one of the expedition members gets seriously ill, then recovers, and all kinds of animals that are either only observed or hunted. Oh, and the fish. Sometimes there are many, and sometimes there are only a few. The whole book seems a little listless to me. There's hardly any room for character development. And not one single line of actual dialog (granted it's a diary, but still).
I read the book to prepare for Zettel's Traum. According to Arno Schmidt, the second book of Zettel's Traum called In Gesellschaft von Bäumen [In company of trees] is heavily based on "Rodman" and now I'm curious on how this will turn out.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
May 10, 2025
Not my favorite POE but it plays a significant part in the second book of Bottom's Dream, and eventually, I'd like to be a Poe completist, so I guess now is the time. Solid. Reminds me a little of other travel fiction novels. But because it didn't finish, it felt it lacked narrative drive or conflict. It was a bit of a walkabout a tour. It would have been interesting to have read it if Poe had the chance to write the second half. Would have loved to see it drop, suddenly into a bit of a funky mythic space of the West. Who knows. All I can do is judge what is left, what is finished. It was good Poe, good writing, but just not great.
February 5, 2015
Apparently Poe got halfway through this story and stopped because he wasn’t getting paid. And that’s how it reads. A dude writing for the money who stops in the middle of it.
November 28, 2020
The Journal of Julius Rodman, Being an Account of the First Passage across the Rocky Mountains of North America Ever Achieved by Civilized Man is an unfinished serialized novel, of which only six installments were published in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine's January through June issues in 1840. At the time, Poe was a contributing editor of the journal. He was fired in June 1840 by William Burton and refused to continue the novel. "The work is heavily reliant upon sources, many of which Poe mentions in the text of the story. Poe reviewed his main source Washington Irving's Astoria, in the January 1837 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger, and also included material found in Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages in 1789 and 1793, published in 1801, and The History of the Expedition under the command of Captains of Lewis and Clark, published in 1814. The realism of the work deceived many readers, and many accepted it as being factual. In an ironic twist Poe's heavily borrowed tale became part of a government report prepared for the United States Senate in 1840, when details of the geography and geology were incorporated into the official report on the Oregon Territory." Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York: Checkmark Books. (119)
Notes:
1. "This tale is a prime example of Poe’s interest in maintaining a sense of realism in his fiction. The presentation here, uncredited to Poe in the tale itself or in the title page, must have fooled many readers into accepting what they read as fact. Indeed, an extract from the story appeared in government documents as authentic (26th Congress, 1st session, 1839-1840, vol 4. no. 174, pp. 140-141). Though it is certainly not among Poe’s more popular works, and received very little attention in his own time, it must certainly be accepted as one of Poe’s more successful hoaxes."
https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
2. "On the inside cover of the paper wrappers for the issue of December 1839 appears the following announcement:
We have the greatest pleasure in announcing that Mr. James E. Rodman, (well known to some of our friends in this city, and elsewhere, as the grandson of Mr. Julius Rodman, who accompanied a small pedestrian party across the Rocky Mountains a few years prior to the expedition of Lewis and Clarke,) has placed in our hands the MS. Account of the Journey, complied by Mr. J. R. soon after his return to Kentucky. The MS. is of some length — but we look upon it as a treasure of no ordinary value, and shall publish it, at all events, in the Magazine during the year, commencing with the next, January, number. The details of this long and dreary pilgrimage, performed by a mere handful of men, over a region entirely untraveled by white people at the time, and through a host of the most savage of the Indian tribes, are replete with a thrilling interest, and, we know, will be universally appreciated by the readers of the Magazine. Mr. Rodman, and his friends, endured privations, and encountered dangers, which few persons, in any situation of life, or under any circumstances, ever endured or encountered before." https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
3. "On the inside front cover of the paper wrappers for the issue of January 1840 appears the following notice:
WE particularly call the attention of the readers of our Magazine to the article which commences at the 44th page of the present number — the JOURNAL OF JULIUS RODMAN. This journal will embrace an account of the first passage ever made by white men across the Rocky Mountains, and of an Exploring Tour through a portion of the Continent of North American HITHERTO ENTIRELY UNKNOWN. It is a narrative of the greatest importance and interest, and will be continued throughout the ensuing year, concluding with the December number. The introductory editorial observations to the Journal will be found to embody a chronological arrangement and digest of the principal Travels hitherto prosecuted in N. America; such a digest not being extant elsewhere. Persons wishing to subscribe to our Magazine, upon the commencement of the New Year, will find this a good opportunity of procuring a copy of one of the most valuable and extraordinary Narratives even penned." https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
The #2 and #3 entries were almost certainly composed by Poe.
4. "The Journal of Julius Rodman - Chapters VII-XII — (according to an editorial note on the cover of the issue of January 1840, there were to be 12 installments of the story. The series was discontinued after Poe’s split with W. E. Burton, and there is no evidence that any of the material was written after chapter 6.)" https://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pt02...
5. Chapter VI was . . . "the last chapter of The Journal of Julius Rodman that Poe completed. Having severed his connection with William Burton, Poe refused to continue the serial until Burton settled the money he owed Poe. A few months later, Burton sold the Gentlemen’s Magazine to George Rex Graham, who merged it with Atkinson’s Casket and created Graham’s Magazine. Although Poe was immediately hired by Graham as an editor, Poe choose not to return to this tale, perhaps because he sensed that his talents were better applied in short fiction." https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
MY OWN THOUGHTS
It is truly a shame that this story was never completed. Poe was undoubtedly a great story teller and this adventure story though incomplete is proof of that. I believe that if he had succeeded in starting up his own magazine The Stylus (which he was about to accomplish when his unfortunate death occurred) he most likely would have continued the saga of Julius Rodman since Poe truly hated to waste any of his writings that he had poured his effort into. Alas! it is his readers loss. Although incomplete it is definitely worth 4 Stars since I was left with wanting to hear more of Rodman's adventures.
Notes:
1. "This tale is a prime example of Poe’s interest in maintaining a sense of realism in his fiction. The presentation here, uncredited to Poe in the tale itself or in the title page, must have fooled many readers into accepting what they read as fact. Indeed, an extract from the story appeared in government documents as authentic (26th Congress, 1st session, 1839-1840, vol 4. no. 174, pp. 140-141). Though it is certainly not among Poe’s more popular works, and received very little attention in his own time, it must certainly be accepted as one of Poe’s more successful hoaxes."
https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
2. "On the inside cover of the paper wrappers for the issue of December 1839 appears the following announcement:
We have the greatest pleasure in announcing that Mr. James E. Rodman, (well known to some of our friends in this city, and elsewhere, as the grandson of Mr. Julius Rodman, who accompanied a small pedestrian party across the Rocky Mountains a few years prior to the expedition of Lewis and Clarke,) has placed in our hands the MS. Account of the Journey, complied by Mr. J. R. soon after his return to Kentucky. The MS. is of some length — but we look upon it as a treasure of no ordinary value, and shall publish it, at all events, in the Magazine during the year, commencing with the next, January, number. The details of this long and dreary pilgrimage, performed by a mere handful of men, over a region entirely untraveled by white people at the time, and through a host of the most savage of the Indian tribes, are replete with a thrilling interest, and, we know, will be universally appreciated by the readers of the Magazine. Mr. Rodman, and his friends, endured privations, and encountered dangers, which few persons, in any situation of life, or under any circumstances, ever endured or encountered before." https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
3. "On the inside front cover of the paper wrappers for the issue of January 1840 appears the following notice:
WE particularly call the attention of the readers of our Magazine to the article which commences at the 44th page of the present number — the JOURNAL OF JULIUS RODMAN. This journal will embrace an account of the first passage ever made by white men across the Rocky Mountains, and of an Exploring Tour through a portion of the Continent of North American HITHERTO ENTIRELY UNKNOWN. It is a narrative of the greatest importance and interest, and will be continued throughout the ensuing year, concluding with the December number. The introductory editorial observations to the Journal will be found to embody a chronological arrangement and digest of the principal Travels hitherto prosecuted in N. America; such a digest not being extant elsewhere. Persons wishing to subscribe to our Magazine, upon the commencement of the New Year, will find this a good opportunity of procuring a copy of one of the most valuable and extraordinary Narratives even penned." https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
The #2 and #3 entries were almost certainly composed by Poe.
4. "The Journal of Julius Rodman - Chapters VII-XII — (according to an editorial note on the cover of the issue of January 1840, there were to be 12 installments of the story. The series was discontinued after Poe’s split with W. E. Burton, and there is no evidence that any of the material was written after chapter 6.)" https://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pt02...
5. Chapter VI was . . . "the last chapter of The Journal of Julius Rodman that Poe completed. Having severed his connection with William Burton, Poe refused to continue the serial until Burton settled the money he owed Poe. A few months later, Burton sold the Gentlemen’s Magazine to George Rex Graham, who merged it with Atkinson’s Casket and created Graham’s Magazine. Although Poe was immediately hired by Graham as an editor, Poe choose not to return to this tale, perhaps because he sensed that his talents were better applied in short fiction." https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/rod...
MY OWN THOUGHTS
It is truly a shame that this story was never completed. Poe was undoubtedly a great story teller and this adventure story though incomplete is proof of that. I believe that if he had succeeded in starting up his own magazine The Stylus (which he was about to accomplish when his unfortunate death occurred) he most likely would have continued the saga of Julius Rodman since Poe truly hated to waste any of his writings that he had poured his effort into. Alas! it is his readers loss. Although incomplete it is definitely worth 4 Stars since I was left with wanting to hear more of Rodman's adventures.
August 1, 2018
This is an unfinished work, so I obviously didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would've. Poe did get quite a lot of it done though and it was good for the most part. I find it really interesting how it was so realistic that it fooled the US government into believing it was an actual account of the first travelers to cross the Rockies. The descriptions of the scenery were great, as was how he emphasized the fear the men felt towards hostile natives and the terrifying grizzly bear encounter at the end. However, because it was mostly just descriptions and more descriptions (it was in journal format after all), I couldn't get that into it. Not horrible, but not one of my favorite Poe works.
June 6, 2017
This is a very much unfinished serialized novel of Poe's that's not much appreciated or read. I'd love to see some creative writer take on the challenge of editing/finishing this because, while it's far from Poe's best work, he plants some interesting seeds and it's fun to hear the master of horror paint a subtly Gothic-toned portrait of the unsettled American West.
Like Pym--his longer sea adventure serialized novel--the "Journal" makes use of exploration narratives of the time (Poe never made it anywhere near the American West, so he had to rely heavily on reports from others). Also, like Pym, he always seemed to be hinting at a Lost World-ish somewhat-sci-fi element, without really going full sci-fi. Also, there is deadly danger, but heroics are kept to a minimum--it seems to be mostly about the wonder of exploration than the strength of an individual. Finally, there were some troubling descriptions of Native Americans with Poe capitalizing on that old trope of natives attacking, being defeated by technology, and ultimately being so impressed with it that they worship the outsiders. Poe gives the race element a bit of a twist by having the Native Americans be particularly impressed with the black slave they brought with them, but overall he unfortunately paints the native Americans as uninteresting, gullible savages.
One surprising theme of the narrative is the suggestion of intelligence and power of the animals throughout. The Newfoundland dog they brought with them was taught to seemingly answer questions by nodding its head, there was a long passage about the intelligence of beavers, and the whole of the narrative ended with a bear attack. After the narrator had described the natives as unwisely hesitating to attack the party, the bears rushing headlong into the party for a surprise attack comes off as a uniquely-animal intelligence, one that is supported by their maneuvering and unyielding fury.
The final thing that I thought was interesting was the composition of the party--Poe threw together some people with a variety of skills, despite the fact that he didn't (as another reviewer noted) develop any of the characters beyond the cursory description of them. So, there's Julius Rodman, the American gentleman explorer who is the leader with a good head on his shoulders and isn't bad in a bear fight; Pierre, a scrappy Canadian fur-trapper who acted as a kind of guide at points; Toby, Pierre's old black slave; Thornton, a loner-type hunter with a heart of gold and giant dog; five almost identical brothers, last name Greely; and a prophet who the narrator says mysteriously (since we never get to that point) helps him out at the end. So, this looks like a pretty good D&D party to me--there's at least a paladin, ranger (with animal companion), and a cleric.
Guessing game time: How do you think this novel would/should have ended? At the point of the bear attack, where Poe left off, he was supposedly halfway through. Who knows why he didn't come back to it--maybe he didn't have a plan for the ending, maybe he recognized that the plan he had wasn't all that good, perhaps he just carried a grudge in that there was an issue with him getting paid for the story, or maybe he just felt it had gotten stale by the time to was rehired as editor. However, thinking optimistically, what could have happened? Well, we know that Julius gets back alive and in good enough health and state of mind to have three kids, though apparently he didn't like talking about his adventures, which are described as "extraordinary" and "difficult." Poe was more limited in this project than he was with Pym because Antarctica was far less explored than the rocky mountains were becoming, though there was one area that Poe left suggestively open for fantastic elements to exist: "in those wide and desolate regions which lie north of our territory, and to the westward of Mackenzie’s river, the foot of no civilized man, with the exception of Mr. Rodman and his very small party, has ever been known to tread. " Looking at a current map, the Mackenzie River is in the Yukon and Northwest Territory in Canada, so Poe (if using an accurate map, and who knows about that) was basically talking about Yukon territory and Alaska.
If following some of the same pattern of Pym, I'd guess that the party would face another attack or misfortune that would kill or injure most of the party, leaving the core group of Rodman, Thornton and dog, the prophet, Toby, and a spare Greely brother. Pierre could die dramatically, and several Greely bros would be red-shirted in, oh, let's say an attack by (rightfully) angry Native Americans. The boat is also lost and they have to travel a good distance on foot, killing a buffalo (with a whole lot of trouble) on the way for food. As they travel, Rodman (since he's drawn to nature anyway) notices that animals start to get bigger in proportion to the humans. The grizzly bears that they had encountered were much bigger than Eastern black bears. Correspondingly, ferrets, wolves, snakes, and other animals look much larger than their Eastern counterparts. Trees, too, are bigger, and enormous redwoods (which Poe might have gotten reports of from descriptions of California) tower overhead. After arduous travel, eerily not meeting another Native American along the way, they get to the unexplored region and find: a golden city populated by advanced Native Americans. (Poe wrote the Goldbug right after this and let's just say that he was a bit psychic on the gold rush thing). These people are a stark contrast to the natives before and they make use of the larger animals in building/riding them around the city, farming, and also in digging up more gold. These natives don't treat gold as a precious metal--it's simply very useful and helps in advancing their technologies (which is an opportunity for Poe to get speculative science-y or mention its uses in medicine at the time). The one Greely brother left goes gold crazy seeing this and wants to take a bunch from the natives, but his greed results in him getting the whole party in trouble and him killed. This is where the prophet comes in--he reasons with the people, convinces them to go free but ultimately stays in the city with his new people since he's convinced that this is heaven on Earth (there's golden gates after all). Thornton, dog, Toby, and Julius narrowly escape, and Thornton lashes together a boat to ride on the Mackenzie River, which shoots them up into the Arctic sea. After terrible cold on a desolate sea in a makeshift raft, they kill and eat the dog (at least it's not cannibalism--been there, done that with Pym), and finally get picked up by a Russian seal boat, which returns them to civilization. Toby likes the boat so much that he doesn't return to be a slave in America, and Thornton makes a new home in Russia and gets a new dog and girlfriend. Julius returns alone, using gold that he had secreted away without realizing it (it was in my boot!)--just enough to get him passage back to America through Asia and Europe. The end. I think Poe would like it (if he wrote it, that is).
Like Pym--his longer sea adventure serialized novel--the "Journal" makes use of exploration narratives of the time (Poe never made it anywhere near the American West, so he had to rely heavily on reports from others). Also, like Pym, he always seemed to be hinting at a Lost World-ish somewhat-sci-fi element, without really going full sci-fi. Also, there is deadly danger, but heroics are kept to a minimum--it seems to be mostly about the wonder of exploration than the strength of an individual. Finally, there were some troubling descriptions of Native Americans with Poe capitalizing on that old trope of natives attacking, being defeated by technology, and ultimately being so impressed with it that they worship the outsiders. Poe gives the race element a bit of a twist by having the Native Americans be particularly impressed with the black slave they brought with them, but overall he unfortunately paints the native Americans as uninteresting, gullible savages.
One surprising theme of the narrative is the suggestion of intelligence and power of the animals throughout. The Newfoundland dog they brought with them was taught to seemingly answer questions by nodding its head, there was a long passage about the intelligence of beavers, and the whole of the narrative ended with a bear attack. After the narrator had described the natives as unwisely hesitating to attack the party, the bears rushing headlong into the party for a surprise attack comes off as a uniquely-animal intelligence, one that is supported by their maneuvering and unyielding fury.
The final thing that I thought was interesting was the composition of the party--Poe threw together some people with a variety of skills, despite the fact that he didn't (as another reviewer noted) develop any of the characters beyond the cursory description of them. So, there's Julius Rodman, the American gentleman explorer who is the leader with a good head on his shoulders and isn't bad in a bear fight; Pierre, a scrappy Canadian fur-trapper who acted as a kind of guide at points; Toby, Pierre's old black slave; Thornton, a loner-type hunter with a heart of gold and giant dog; five almost identical brothers, last name Greely; and a prophet who the narrator says mysteriously (since we never get to that point) helps him out at the end. So, this looks like a pretty good D&D party to me--there's at least a paladin, ranger (with animal companion), and a cleric.
Guessing game time: How do you think this novel would/should have ended? At the point of the bear attack, where Poe left off, he was supposedly halfway through. Who knows why he didn't come back to it--maybe he didn't have a plan for the ending, maybe he recognized that the plan he had wasn't all that good, perhaps he just carried a grudge in that there was an issue with him getting paid for the story, or maybe he just felt it had gotten stale by the time to was rehired as editor. However, thinking optimistically, what could have happened? Well, we know that Julius gets back alive and in good enough health and state of mind to have three kids, though apparently he didn't like talking about his adventures, which are described as "extraordinary" and "difficult." Poe was more limited in this project than he was with Pym because Antarctica was far less explored than the rocky mountains were becoming, though there was one area that Poe left suggestively open for fantastic elements to exist: "in those wide and desolate regions which lie north of our territory, and to the westward of Mackenzie’s river, the foot of no civilized man, with the exception of Mr. Rodman and his very small party, has ever been known to tread. " Looking at a current map, the Mackenzie River is in the Yukon and Northwest Territory in Canada, so Poe (if using an accurate map, and who knows about that) was basically talking about Yukon territory and Alaska.
If following some of the same pattern of Pym, I'd guess that the party would face another attack or misfortune that would kill or injure most of the party, leaving the core group of Rodman, Thornton and dog, the prophet, Toby, and a spare Greely brother. Pierre could die dramatically, and several Greely bros would be red-shirted in, oh, let's say an attack by (rightfully) angry Native Americans. The boat is also lost and they have to travel a good distance on foot, killing a buffalo (with a whole lot of trouble) on the way for food. As they travel, Rodman (since he's drawn to nature anyway) notices that animals start to get bigger in proportion to the humans. The grizzly bears that they had encountered were much bigger than Eastern black bears. Correspondingly, ferrets, wolves, snakes, and other animals look much larger than their Eastern counterparts. Trees, too, are bigger, and enormous redwoods (which Poe might have gotten reports of from descriptions of California) tower overhead. After arduous travel, eerily not meeting another Native American along the way, they get to the unexplored region and find: a golden city populated by advanced Native Americans. (Poe wrote the Goldbug right after this and let's just say that he was a bit psychic on the gold rush thing). These people are a stark contrast to the natives before and they make use of the larger animals in building/riding them around the city, farming, and also in digging up more gold. These natives don't treat gold as a precious metal--it's simply very useful and helps in advancing their technologies (which is an opportunity for Poe to get speculative science-y or mention its uses in medicine at the time). The one Greely brother left goes gold crazy seeing this and wants to take a bunch from the natives, but his greed results in him getting the whole party in trouble and him killed. This is where the prophet comes in--he reasons with the people, convinces them to go free but ultimately stays in the city with his new people since he's convinced that this is heaven on Earth (there's golden gates after all). Thornton, dog, Toby, and Julius narrowly escape, and Thornton lashes together a boat to ride on the Mackenzie River, which shoots them up into the Arctic sea. After terrible cold on a desolate sea in a makeshift raft, they kill and eat the dog (at least it's not cannibalism--been there, done that with Pym), and finally get picked up by a Russian seal boat, which returns them to civilization. Toby likes the boat so much that he doesn't return to be a slave in America, and Thornton makes a new home in Russia and gets a new dog and girlfriend. Julius returns alone, using gold that he had secreted away without realizing it (it was in my boot!)--just enough to get him passage back to America through Asia and Europe. The end. I think Poe would like it (if he wrote it, that is).
February 9, 2019
It's hard to judge a book which is left uncompleted. The story must have been immensely interesting for 19th century readers but it lacks some compelling factors other writings of Poe have.
February 19, 2022
I am giving this a 2.5, rounded up to be nice. Julius Rodman is a man living in America in 1792, who sets out to make his fortune gathering pelts on the American frontier. Rodman is supposedly the first white man to have crossed the Rockies. Poe appears to have done his research, because this story would have fooled me if I hadn’t already known it was a fictional tale. One of my greatest complaints about Poe is that he constantly uses obscure and even foreign words that require the reader to have a dictionary on hand to understand his stories. I would have believed a hunter from 1792 would have used such flowery language, and to my surprise, Poe resisted the urge to embellish his frontier tale like that. This resulted in it being easier to understand and that it felt like it had been written by a frontiersman. They fight some bears and Native Americans, befriend some other native Americans, get sick, hunt beavers, and explore the west. The near attack was exciting, the Native American attacks were rather dull. My favorite part was that hunters don’t really seem to care about hunting or making their fortune. They are just caught up with the spirit of exploration and enjoying their time in nature. My complaints are that the story was too long for my tastes, and I never really connected with the characters. It was also hard to keep track of the 500 Native American tribes named and it ends abruptly. Overall, this was a decent story and it was nice to see the ‘Imp of Perverse’ explore something outside the macabre.
September 9, 2024
In 1792, explorer Julius Rodman becomes the first white man to travel from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, crossing the treacherous and mysterious Rocky Mountains a year before the Mackenzie expedition and a full thirteen years before Lewis and Clark…
His account includes the first glimpse of Yellowstone; hunting antelope, elk, and timber wolves; a grizzly bear attack on a clifftop; a death by rattlesnake bite; and detailed observations on the habits of beavers…
This is a fun oddity in the Edgar Allan Poe library. It is a novel written in the same style as the Lewis-Clarke journals, somewhat dry by today’s standards, without Poe's trademark Gothic atmosphere and evocative purple prose. Its verisimilitude convinced many readers it was nonfiction. In fact, it was cited on the floor of the US Senate and in the U.S. Senate Document of the 26th Congress, 1st Session.
In 1840, Poe began serializing this novel in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, but when he was fired, he refused to continue work on it. It remained incomplete at the time of his death.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Peter Noble.
4 stars
His account includes the first glimpse of Yellowstone; hunting antelope, elk, and timber wolves; a grizzly bear attack on a clifftop; a death by rattlesnake bite; and detailed observations on the habits of beavers…
This is a fun oddity in the Edgar Allan Poe library. It is a novel written in the same style as the Lewis-Clarke journals, somewhat dry by today’s standards, without Poe's trademark Gothic atmosphere and evocative purple prose. Its verisimilitude convinced many readers it was nonfiction. In fact, it was cited on the floor of the US Senate and in the U.S. Senate Document of the 26th Congress, 1st Session.
In 1840, Poe began serializing this novel in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, but when he was fired, he refused to continue work on it. It remained incomplete at the time of his death.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Peter Noble.
4 stars
June 19, 2020
Aburrido, la verdad no me ha gustado.
October 11, 2020
This is a lot of fun, very vivid nature writing and a swift moving tale. This novel is so detailed that senators cited it as a real account in official testimony. Another Poe triumph.
January 12, 2022
It was just a list of one man’s adventure kind of boring and hard to stay focus
December 29, 2022
boring
December 26, 2025
After the passing of his family, Julius Rodman forms a team of explorers and hunters to travel across the Rocky Mountains in search of pelts that could make them a fortune - but it is an adventure where natural beauty hides dangerous folk and creatures...Poe offers an atmospheric account of heartening landscapes and amicable comradery in this unfinished short story, though occasionally monotonous in its lengthy figures.
December 11, 2018
“A beaver tail will suffice for a plentiful dinner for three men.”
February 25, 2024
Full video review of this and other Poe tales is available on our Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/zsTF7vgLrAw?si=hsYSD...
January 4, 2026
The unfinished (and also barely started) Poe novel meant to emulate an 18th century travelogue. The travelogue parts are utterly BORING. The adventure parts (meeting Indians, confronting bears) are pretty good. Overall, not good.
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