[UA] Edgar Allen Poe and ciphers

[Eric Brennan]

----- Original Message -----
From: <kabael at softhome.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 1:32 PM
Subject: [UA] Edgar Allen Poe and ciphers


>
> http://www.sciam.com/news/110300/4.html
>
> Just a quick little note about Poe's love (obsession?) with codes and
> ciphers and one that hadn't been solved until just recently.
>
> I thought _someone_ on this list would be interested in that. For some
> reason, it reminds me of Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission about the
> circumstances surrounding Poe's death. Something about the sample of the
> translated text.
>
> "It was early spring, warm and sultry glowed the afternoon. The very
> breezes seemed to share the delicious languor of universal nature..."

    It's funny that you bring this up, since it reminded me (something about
the time of year, I wager) of the mysterious visitor to Poe's grave in
Baltimore every year.  A cloaked fellow shows up every year with a bottle of
cognac late at night on Poe's b-day and drinks to his health (or something.)
He/she then departs, leaving behind three roses and half a bottle of cognac.
The staff at the cemetery have orders to keep people away from the visitor.
I believe the original visitor kept it up for over 50 years until '93, then
left a mysterious note and another picked up the practice.  The entire thing
is eaten up by a lot of literate Balmerians...  I find it touching, if not a
little "Goth Chat."

There's a good article cited here--you'll have to scroll down the page for
it: http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/archive/99jan25.htm
This site has a picture, however small, of the visitor:
http://www.neuroticpoets.com/poe/


    Also interesting, if you can find it online, is the story of where he
got the idea for Cask of Amontillado...A neat target for Cliomancers, if
nothing else.  (I read it in a book on Poe, so I have no idea if it's online
or not.)

Just as interesting is the first cipher solved, which is listed on one of
the links from Kintaro's page:

    The soul secure in her existence smiles at the drawn dagger and defies
its point. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself grow dim with age and
nature sink in years, but thou shall flourish in immortal youth, unhurt amid
the war of elements, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.

Remind anyone else but me of the Count?
--Eric
"Homer, you can't judge a city by its pimps and its CHUDs."
--Marge Simpson


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