Celebrate Creativity

Send us Fan Mail This the final episode of a series that looks at what might have happened if Edgar Allan Poe had chosen a different path - if he had decided to become a soldier after his time at West Point, and not one of the greatest of all American writers.  And we invariably go off to discuss other subjects as well including the creative process and how Mr. Poe responded to the structured envi...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - my name is George Bartley, and this is episode 257 - Waking at 6 AM This and the following podcast episodes are an alternate or what if history exercises.  The episodes look at what might have happened if Edgar Allan Poe had chosen a different path - if he had decided to become a soldier after his time at West Point, and not one of the greatest of all Am...

Send us Fan Mail This and the following podcast episodes in this series are an alternate or what if history exercises.  The episodes look at what might have happened if Edgar Allan Poe had chosen a different path - if he had decided to become a soldier after his time at West Point, and not one of the greatest of all American writers.  And we invariably go off to discuss other subjects as well such...

Send us Fan Mail This and the following three podcast episodes were begun as what if history exercises.  These episodes look at what might have happened if Edgar Allan Poe had chosen a different path - if he had decided to become a soldier after his time at West Point, and not one of the greatest of all American writers.  And we invariably go off to discuss other subjects as well such as observati...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Celebrate Poe - This is episode 254 - Poe’s Views on Democracy.  Today I would like to talk with Mr. Poe about his views of government - and especially about what he might have thought about the specter of Donald Trump.   I had previously been under the impression that Edgar Allan Poe was somewhat reactionary in his political views - coming from a wealthy and rathe...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast episode deals with an address given by Robert G. Ingersoll - one of the individuals who spoke at Whitman’s funeral. He was the poet of Love. He was not ashamed of that divine passion that has built every home; that divine passion that has painted every picture and given us every real work of art; that divine passion that has made the world worth living in and has give...

Send us Fan Mail The main title of this episode, Call Me By Your Name, is taken from the text of a letter written to Whitman by one of Whitman’s admirers - none other than Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula. Trickle drops! my blue veins leaving! O drops of me! trickle, slow drops, Candid from me falling, drip, bleeding drops, From wounds made to free you whence you were prison'd From my face,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 251 - When Whitman Met Peter - this episode deals with an essential area of Walt Whitman’s life and creative spirit - in fact, you might even say that a twenty-something immigrant served as an inspiration and a muse for some of the poet’s greatest works.  Of course, during Pride Month, this podcast concentrates on  America’s poet - but today I wa...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - This is episode 250   Whitman and the Civil War. Walt Whitman was forty-two years old when the Civil War started. Some critics would charge that he should have joined the Union Army, but anyone who knew him, like his friend and biographer John Burroughs, could hardly conceive of the mild and empathic poet as a soldier. "Could there be anything more...

Send us Fan Mail This is episode 249 - America’s First Gay Bar While the word gay certainly wasn’t used to connote same sex attraction during Walt Whitman’s lifetime, Whitman DID patronize an establishment at 647 Broadway that today might be considered a gay bar.  And that drinking establishment was known as Pfaff’s - spelled PFAFFs.   I have even heard a Whitman scholar compare Pfaff’s to the dis...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - This is episode 248 - America’s Poet - This is the first full episode of Pride Month dealing with Walt Whitman. This episode emphasizes that Whitman continually revised and added new poems to his masterpiece "Leaves of Grass" over his lifetime to symbolize the organic, ever-changing nature of the work itself.  This allowed the work to grow and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is Episode 247 - Same Sex Attraction in the 19th Century As I write the script for this podcast episode, tomorrow is the first day of LGBTQ month - and similar to previous years, I decided to devote the entire month to individuals who are viewed as gay heroes.  The month of June is an appropriate time to look at some o...

Send us Fan Mail Today I’d like to take a slight change of pace with a look at an area that is not often associated with Edgar Allan Poe, but an area in which the Allan family vacationed - White Sulphur Springs during the summers of 1812, 1813, and 1814.   Prior to the Civil War, the White Sulphur Springs area was called western Virginia, but all that changed when West Virginia became a state in 1...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is Episode 245 - Byron’s Influences on Poe.  This episode is the third - and final - for now - episode about Lord Byron, and does not deal as much with Byron’s escapades in Europe, but how he influenced Edgar Poe.  The episode delves into the young Edgar Poe as an imitator of Byron, and introduces the important concept...

Send us Fan Mail This is Episode 244 of Celebrate Poe - Darkness - the second of three episodes about Lord Byron Where we left off, it is said that Lord Byron awoke one morning and found himself famous. The first run of his latest book of 500 copies sold out in three days.  Pretty impressive for the time! This episode also takes a deep dive into Byron's apocalyptic poem - Darkness, as well as...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe, Episode 243 ˜- Dangerous to Know.  This My name is George Bartley, and this is the first of three episodes about Lord George Byron.   A few episodes ago, I talked about the love of Lord Byron and his dog - and hoped I got across the point that Lord Byron was a fascinating person.  Then it struck me - it might be a good idea to talk a bit more about Lord B...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is episode 242 - Dreamland, Continued .  Hopefully this should be the last episode regarding Edgar Allan Poe’s Dream Poems - at least for now.  And, hopefully, by the end of this episode, you will have an firm understanding of what Ultima Thule means. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.

Send us Fan Mail This podcast to takes a deeper dive into some of Poe’s so-called Dream Works - or your works that dealt with the experience of dreaming. This episode will revisit A Dream With a Dream (perhaps the work most associated with the movie Inception.).  But the majority of the episode will introduce the concept of Ultima Thule, as well as Poe’s metaphysical masterpiece - Eureka.   Suppor...

Send us Fan Mail This episode deals with the use of animal metaphors in Poe’s works - concentrating on The Conqueror Worm and perhaps the most well-known of all poetic metaphors - The Raven. And imagine that (instead or a raven) Poe used an owl - or a parrot.  What differences might that change in metaphors make? Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is episode 239. This episode deals with arguably the two greatest writers of the 19th century - Mark Twain and Edgar Poe - and their fascination with (and love of) cats in their lives and literature.  Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is episode 238 - Remains of a Friend.  Now I admit that examining Poe’s life - while certainly interesting and informative - can be a bit tedious at times.  For a complete change of pace, I thought I would look at the pets of several famous writers for the next an episode or two - naturally ending with Edgar Allan Poe....

Send us Fan Mail This episode looks  at how Edgar Poe was directly influenced by the works of William Shakespeare. This episode deals with a list of quotes from Shakespeare in Poe’s handwriting that can be seen at the Poe Museum in Richmond (when the author of this podcast saw that list, he became as excited as a young girl at a Taylor Swift concert!). George points out that Poe (a definite admire...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 236 - A Star is Born is the first of two episodes that deal with the influence of William Shakespeare (the anniversary of his birthday was earlier this week.). The first episode deals with the influence of Shakespeare's plays (and acting in general) on the marriage of David and Eliza Poe.  Using some original information that I doubt you will find anywhere else, I wou...

Send us Fan Mail This episode continues a series that compare’s elements of Christopher Nolan’s Inception with Poe’s dream works. The episode ends with Poe’s poem Dreams - a classic work that  weaves a narrative transitioning from a sense of hope in dreams to a realization of their illusory nature. The speaker reminisces about reveling in dreams of light and loveliness, escaping into imagined real...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Poe - episode 234 - Spinning Tops, Part Two In this episode, Celebrate Poe continues its examination of some of Poe’s works against the background of Christopher Nolan’s movie - Inception. First, it is important to remember that many of Poe's tales are narrated by characters with questionable sanity or motives.  Stories like "The Tell-Tale Heart&quot...