Wine, Chocolate & Poe
By Jean Zimmerman, with thanks to Eddie Jabbour and Lindsey Taylor for photo contributions
It was a dark and stormy night…
Well, not exactly. It was dark, yes, on this Wednesday, February 12th, just before Valentine’s Day on Friday.
But tonight the weather was clear and chilly.
An overflow crowd gathered in the Keeper’s House in Dobbs Ferry for an evening of “Wine, Chocolate, & Poe.”
The audience was forewarned in the program.
“These are stories of love and romance that will fill your heart with joy.
They are also tales of loss, grief, and maybe just a little bit of gruesome death.
These statements are not mutually exclusive.”
Attendees were revved up, psyched for the show to come.
Performer David Neilsen was there to perform some of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known works.
Poe was born in Boston in 1809. He moved to New York City and Baltimore, where he married his 13-year-old cousin. Then, back to the Bronx. After publishing numerous literary works, including Fall of the House of Usher (1839) and The Pit and the Pendulum (1842), he died in October 1849.
David, a professional storyteller, has performed frequently in the Hudson River Valley. A writer as well as an actor, he has published numerous “amusing-disturbing” children’s novels. Several were displayed for peoples’ perusal.
First, though, guests enjoyed scrumptious sweets (to honor the adage: “Eat Dessert First!”). Brownies and cookies and red velvet cake and too many others to list.
Attendees were happy to indulge.
And wine, served up by a couple of friendly bartenders.
Good friends got better acquainted.
There was an opportunity to wander the Keeper’s House and peruse the historical displays. The Surveyor’s chain, a standardized measuring device utilized across the U.S. at the time the Aqueduct was built between 1837 and 1842.
Then, on to the show.
David offered four of Poe’s finest works:
Annabel Lee
Berenice
The Raven
The Tell-Tale Heart
To introduce Berenice, he told the audience: “This is a story about love and relationships and evil.”
“Once upon a midnight dreary…” He infused the classic lines from The Raven with dramatic verve.
“One last tale that has nothing to do with romance but anything to do with Poe would be incomplete without it — The Tell-Tale Heart.”
He brought the words “the hellish tattoo of the heart grew loud” to life.
After the performance, audience members lingered to hear Roger McCormack, Education Director for the Bronx County Historical Society, answered questions about the writer’s life.
Poe was at one time a Bronx resident. He lived in a tiny cottage in rural Fordham Village just east of the Old Croton Aqueduct from spring 1846 until he died in October 1849. The cottage still stands and welcomes visitors.
He explained, “The Raven was caused by tragedies in Poe’s life… it was a hardscrabble life, a lot of loss, an appetite for self-destruction.” Poe was 40 when he perished under still-mysterious circumstances. Roger mentioned Baudelaire, who translated Poe’s works and considered him his “literary soul mate.” Baudelaire wrote, “Poe made great efforts to subject the fleeting demon of the happy minutes to his will.”
There’s no hard evidence of the writer crossing the High Bridge, which was constructed in 1848 over the Harlem River from the Bronx to Manhattan. Sill, an evocative image of a melancholy Poe doing just that has given us an imagined portrait of the troubled writer. According to Roger it’s a “romanticized image.”
Still it’s gone on to inspire many artistic iterations, including this graphic by FOCA board member Eddie Jabbour that shows Poe holding a gleaming red wine glass. Appropriate, since scholars know the poet was a serious alcoholic.
After the presentation, more socializing. And more dessert.
A dark and stormy good time was had by all.
Eddie summed up the pre-Valentine’s event simply:
“great night!
great talks!
great wines!
great brownies!
great people!”