Friends of Vernon Library host Halloween talk on Edgar Allen Poe

VERNON-The Dorothy E. Henry Branch of Friends of the Library will present a lecture, “Edgar Allan Poe: Black Cats, Talking Ravens, and Premature Burials,” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30. Poe, who suffered from alcoholism and once attempted suicide with a drug overdose, seems to speak in a truer voice to contemporary culture than he did to readers of his own time. His fragile psychological condition is partly explained by the fact that he was orphaned at an early age and was never able to escape the sense that he would be abandoned by any woman he would ever love. For Poe, the most beautiful of all literary subjects was the death of a beautiful woman, usually in eerie, Gothic settings and told by her bereaved lover. This lecture, by Dr. Edward M. Cifelli, looks at some of Poe’s best known works to see how he resolved his inner struggles. Dr. Cifelli, a retired professor of English, is currently working on a memoir of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and a book about Miller Williams, who wrote and presented the inaugural poem at the second inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton in (January 1997. The program, suitable for teens and adults, will be held in the community room of the library, located on Route 94. Admission is free with a reception to follow. For information, call 973-827-8095.