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Richard Kop@ Periodicals as Key in Poe and Hawthorne Scholars have long observed Poe’s reliance on Hawthorne. For example, Seymour Gross discusses Poe’s use of “TheBirth-Mark”for his revision of “Life in Death”; Robert Regan considers Poe’s use of “Legendsof the Province-House”for “The Masque of the Red Death”; and D. M. McKeithantreats Poe’s use of “TheProphetic Pictures ” for “The Oval Portrait.” Most recently, Richard Fuscoelaborates on Poe’sresponse in “Life in Death” to Hawthorne’s “Prophetic Pictures.” Others have also noted Hawthorne’s reliance on Poe. For instance, Arlin Turner generally asserts Hawthorne’s indebtedness to Poe, and I discuss Hawthorne’s use of “TheTell-TaleHeart” for The Scarlet Letter. But the connection between Poe and Hawthorne goes beyond their reliance on one another to a correspondence in their processes of composition. My work on Poe’s novel TheNarrative o f Arthur Gordon Qm closely relates to my work on The Scarlet Letter because in both cases a contemporary periodical source led to a biblical motif developed in productive tension with a great literary predecessor.’ The Norfolk Herald and the Norfolk Beacon of February 1836 (newspapers from which Poe had quoted review excerpts for supplements to the Southern Literary Messenger) contain an account of the destruction of a vessel named the Ariel, an account that proves to be a source for the first chap ter of Pym and itsallegoricaldestruction ofJerusalem . (Ariel,in the Bible [Isa.29:1],isJerusalem.) The allegory allowed Poe to render the Fall of Jerusalem without obscuring interest in individual characters, thus achieving what Samuel Taylor Coleridge admitted in Table Talk (a book Poe reviewed ) that he could not achieve.And this p r e gression from periodical to biblical motif is repeated . The Charleston Courier for 22 March 1811 features an advertisement for the play Tekdi that servesas a source for the cry “Tekeli-li!”heard on 22 March in Qm. Furthermore, the ad’s identification of Poe’s mother, Mrs. Poe, in the role of the bride Christine, suggests (I suggest) an allegory of the union of Christ and his bride, the Church, as prophesied in the book of Revelation, underscoring the reading of the white “shrouded human figure” as Christ in Revelation come to prophesy the New Jerusalem (Writings, 1:20!5-6; Rev. 1:13-14).* For the third chapter of my book The Threads o f “TheScarlet Lettq ,,the critical periodical is not a newspaper but a monthly magazine, the Pioneer, edited byJames Russell Lowell and Robert Carter overits run of three issues,fromJanuary to March of 1843.5What led me to the Pioneerwas its featuring ,in itsfirst issue,the firstprinting of Poe’s “TellTale Heart,” a tale that was critical for chapter 10 of Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne certainly would have read the Pioneer-Lowell was a friend and solicited contributions from him-and Hawthorne did publish there “The Hall of Fantasy” and “TheBirth-Mark.’’We even have a letter from Sophia Hawthorne mentioning receipt of the first issue of the Pioneer. That issue offers not only “The Tell-Tale Heart” and a review of Hawthorne’s children’s book Histm’cal Talesfor Youthbut also a review of an overlooked novel from Hawthorne’s publisher Tappan and Dennet: TheSalem Belle:A Taleo f 1692 (1842). The last third of this book provided Hawthornewith source materialfor three passages in the final third of The Scarlet Letter: one involving the forest meeting of Hester and Dimmesdale, another a vessel in the harbor, and a third the minister’sscaffold confession.Hawthorne’suse of TheSalemBelle in TheScarlet Letteralso leads to the Periodicals asKey in Poe and Hawthorne 29 Bible. The anonymous author of The Salem Belle, EbenezerWheelwright,was the descendantof the renownedJohn Wheelwright, an antinomian associate of Anne Hutchinson,who is herself twice linked to Hester in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne transformed elements of The Salem Belle to suggest (covertlyby way of its unknownauthor)John Wheelwright,who in turn maybe linkedtoArthur Dimmesdale. John Winthrop’sJournalreveals repeatedconnections between John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, from their arrival in Massachusetts Bay Colony to their departure? Accordingly,we have in TheScarlet Letter,by way of The Salem Belle and its author...

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