The Black Cat

"The Black Cat" is a famous short story from horror-master Edgar Allan Poe. It was first printed on August 19, 1843, in the Philadelphia edition of a newspaper called the United States Saturday Post. We think a newspaper is a perfect place for it. This lurid tale reads like something right out of the headlines – bizarre headlines to be sure. Gruesome news items were just as popular in Poe's time as they are in ours.

Like many news stories, "The Black Cat" can be a downer. Stripped to bare bones, it's a story about domestic violence and brutal murder. It's the death-row confession of nameless man who destroys himself, his wife, and his pets. As is often the case with real life murderers, we can't pinpoint exactly why he went out of control. This mystery is part of what has kept "The Black Cat" in circulation for over a 160 years.

Because Edgar Allan Poe is such a fascinating person, and has a popular reputation as a creepy guy, some readers are tempted to imagine that Poe and his narrators are one in the same. As far as we know, Poe was no murderer. He seemed to have loving relationship with his wife, and is reported to have been a cat lover (source).

If Poe wasn't a creep, you might be wondering, how did he get that reputation? Well, he was involved professionally with a man named Rufus Wilmot Griswold. (Yes, that was his real name.) In any case, the two men had a complicated and not altogether friendly relationship. When Poe died at age 40 in 1849, Griswold became Poe's self-declared biographer. This is where the trouble began. Griswold distorted and sensationalized Poe's life and had a large part in creating a fictionalized Poe.

How, you might be wondering, do we know Griswold is stretching the truth and making stuff up? The evidence, of course. While we can never really know Poe, his letters, essays, and reviews speak for themselves. Letters to Poe, as well as things written about him are also taken into account by scholars looking to provide a more balanced view of the man. Still, much of Poe's short life is a mystery, and we just have to accept that fact. (For more on Poe and Griswold, click here.)