The Monetary Imagination of Edgar Allan Poe: Banking, Currency and Politics in the Writings

In Poe's writings much is concealed, though his art also reveals while it conceals, in this instance, a deep felt desire for an authority that would guarantee a measure of permanence and continuity to the nation' s currency. That kind of currency was finally furnished by Abraham Lincoln (both were born in 1809; Poe died in 1849), at one time a dedicated reader of Poe's tales and sketches. Wielding his "power of regulation," Lincoln came to save the Union not just militarily but also economically. Under him, the United States government finally provided the kind of "sound and uniform currency" that Poe in his writings could only name and rehearse.