The Independence of Poe: A Declaration of a Different Sort

In 1826, one of America’s Founding Fathers crossed paths with one of the new nation’s defining writers when University of Virginia student Edgar Allan Poe attended Thomas Jefferson’s funeral. Just as Jefferson had declared the nation’s political, religious, and architectural independence from England, the young Poe would soon issue America’s Declaration of Literary and Artistic Independence. But how did Poe define American literature at a time when the young nation was still trying to define itself? Join the Poe Museum’s curator Chris Semtner for a discussion of the ways Poe’s time in Albemarle County inspired him to break American literature free of its dependence upon European models and values. This will be a virtual program, June 29 at 6pm EDT.