Poe the Cryptographer
Cryptography - The process or skill of communicating in or deciphering secret writings or ciphers.
Cryptography was a hobbie and fascination of Poe's and shows in his writing. It appears first in his short story The Gold Bug as a pivotal moment in the plot. That year (1839), Poe sent out a request to the readers for cryptographs in an article in Alexander's Weekly Messenger, boasting that he'd solve them all. A year later in his column in Graham's Magazine, Poe claimed to have solved all 100 cryptographs submitted. He later published 2 cryptographs written by a "W. B. Tyler," but without solutions.
It's since been supposed that W. B. Tyler is actually Poe himself, and that the cryptographs were a challenge to his readership. That challenge has only recently been met. The shorter of the two was solved by a Professor at Darthmouth in 1985 and turned out to be:
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.
Although the tone matches Poe's, the words actually come from the 1713 play Cato by Joseph Addison. A $2,500 prize was offered for the solution to the second puzzle in 2000 and was awarded later that year.It was early spring, warm and sultry glowed the afternoon. The very breezes seemed to share the delicious langour of universal nature, are laden the various and mingled perfumes of the rose and the -essaerne (?), the woodbine and its wildflower. They slowly wafted their fragrant offering to the open window where sat the lovers. The ardent sun shoot fell upon her blushing face and its gentle beauty was more like the creation of romance or the fair inspiration of a dream than the actual reality on earth. Tenderly her lover gazed upon her as the clusterous ringlets were edged (?) by amorous and sportive zephyrs and when he perceived (?) the rude intrusion of the sunlight he sprang to draw the curtain but softly she stayed him. "No, no, dear Charles," she softly said, "much rather you'ld I have a little sun than no air at all."
Again, the words themselves are not Poe's. But is the cypher? That mystery remains.
Poe the Cosmologist
Cosmology - The study of the physical universe considered as a totality of phenomena in time and space.
Eureka has received new attention in recent years thanks to Poe's uncanny (or lucky?) insights into the workings of the universe.
Despite a lack of education in physics and astronomy, Poe's 150 page essay Eureka accurately describes our universe in a number of ways undreamed of by actual astronomers in 1848 (the year of its publication). Poe describes the universe as dynamic, and predates the Big Bang theory when he insists that it exploded into being from a single "primordial particle" in "one instantaneous flash." Poe likewise predicted the existence of black holes, and dismissed what is known as Olber's paradox (The paradox: If the universe is infinite, why do we have darkness? Answer: The universe is not infinite, and much of the light in the universe has not yet reached us.)
It's debatable whether Eureka is brilliant and insightful, or the lucky and rambling guesses of a layman; regardless, it is an interesting read and written with Poe's usual signature style.
