A new book reveals an unlikely contemporary hero.
Poe for Your Problems, by Catherine Baab-Muguira. Running Press. 256 pp. $18.
He was never one to see the sunny side. Nevertheless, Edgar Allen Poe emerges as “history’s least likely self-help guru” in author Catherine Baab-Muguira’s new book, Poe for Your Problems. “He had more tragedy in his life than almost anyone,” she explains. “He was constantly broke, he couldn’t hold a job, but he also achieved this spectacular success. Even when he died [presumably from alcoholism] he went down swinging.”
And so, when Baab-Muguira was enduring her own dark chapter, she turned to Poe. “I started rereading him and found profound life lessons hidden in his otherwise-gloomy writing. He never lies to you about how painful life can be. It cheered me up.”
With that, a book idea was hatched. And because Poe, who died in 1849, has 4 million Facebook fans (outpaced only by very-much-alive writers, Stephen King and JK Rowling), the manuscript earned multiple bids from publishers.
Baab-Muguira says millennials, especially, will appreciate Poe’s take on work. “His letters feel so modern, almost like an episode of ‘The Office’,” she marvels. “In one, he says, I ‘have been forced to model my thoughts at the will of men whose imbecility was evident to all but themselves.’”
The book reads like a darkly funny biography, offering a life lesson with each chapter. “For instance, ‘early loss can drive you to succeed, so you should never try to achieve closure,’” Baab-Muguira explains. “Without his sadness, Poe never would have written The Raven.” www.catherinebaabmuguira.com/
By a copy at The Bookshop.
This article originally appeared in the October 2021 issue.
