Eureka is an 1848 lengthy non-fiction work by the American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) which he subtitled "A Prose Poem", though it has also been subtitled "An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe". Adapted from a lecture he had presented, Eureka describes Poe's intuitive conception of the nature of the universe, with no antecedent scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man's relationship with God, whom he compares to an author. Eureka is dedicated to the German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859).Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York City: Harper Perennial, 1991: 339. .Eureka: A Prose Poem – Full text of the 1848 edition
Though Eureka is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe's ideas anticipate 20th-century scientific discoveries and theories."Poe Foresees Modern Cosmologists' Black Holes and The Big Crunch" URL accessed July 14, 2007 Analysis of Eurekas scientific content shows congruities with modern cosmology, stemming from Poe's assumption of an evolving Universe."Edgar Allan Poe and his Cosmology" URL accessed March 28, 2008
In Poe's day, Eureka was received poorly and was generally described, even by friends, as absurd. Modern critics continue to debate the import of Eureka, and some doubt its seriousness, in part because of Poe's many incorrect assumptions and his comical references to historic thinkers. Poe calls Eureka a "poem", whereas many critics compare it with his fiction works, especially his science fiction stories such as "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Poe's attempts at discovering the truth follow his own tradition of "ratiocination", a term he had used in his detective fiction tales. His suggestion that the soul continues to thrive even after death parallels his writings in which characters reappear from beyond the grave, as in "Ligeia". The essay contains aspects of transcendentalism, despite Poe's disdain for that movement.
Poe considered Eureka his greatest work and claimed that it was more important than the discovery of gravity.
Overview To the few who love me and whom I love – to those who feel rather than to those who think – to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities – I offer this Book of Truths, not in its character of Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its Truth; constituting it true. To these I present the composition as an Art-Product alone: let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a Poem. — Preface to Eureka, by Edgar Allan Poe Eureka is Poe's last major work and his longest non-fiction work, at nearly 40,000 words. The work had its origins in a lecture Poe presented on February 3, 1848, titled "On The Cosmography of the Universe", at the Society Library in New York.Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998: 539. . He had expected an audience of hundreds; only 60 people attended, and many reportedly were confused by the topic.Krutch, Joseph Wood. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1926: 180–181. Poe had hoped the profits from the lecture would cover expenses for the production of his new journal, The Stylus. Some reviews in the contemporary press offered lavish praise for the lecture, while others critiqued it harshly.
Eureka is Poe's attempt at explaining the universe, using his general proposition that "Because Nothing was, therefore All Things are".Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001: 83. . In Eureka, Poe discusses man's relationship to God and the universe or, as he offers at the beginning: "I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical – of the Material and Spiritual Universe: of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its Present Condition and its Destiny".Poe, Edgar Allan. Eureka. (1848) In keeping with this design, Poe concludes "that space and duration are one" and that matter and spirit are made of the same essence. Poe suggests that people have a natural tendency to believe in themselves as infinite with nothing greater than their soul—such thoughts stem from man's residual feelings from when each shared an original identity with God. Ultimately individual consciousnesses will collapse back into a similar single mass, a "final ingathering" where the "myriads of individual Intelligences become blended".Whalen, Terence. "Poe and the American Publishing Industry", as collected in A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by J. Gerald Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2001: 90. . Likewise, Poe saw the universe itself as infinitely expanding and contracting like a divine heartbeat which constantly rejuvenates itself, also implying a sort of deathlessness. In fact, because the soul is a part of this constant throbbing, after dying, all people, in essence, become God.
Publication history Eureka was published in a small hardcover edition in March 1848 by Wiley & Putnam, priced at 75 cents. Poe persuaded George Palmer Putnam – who had previously taken a chance on Poe by printing his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, in England – to publish Eureka, after Poe claimed Eureka to be more important than Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity. Putnam paid Poe fourteen dollars for the work.
Poe suggested an initial printing of at least one million copies; Putnam settled on 750, of which 500 were sold that year.Tebbel, John. A History of Book Publishing in the United States – Volume I: The Creation of an Industry (1630–1865). New York City: R.R. Bowker Co., 1972: 306. . Other accounts say that Poe requested 50,000 copies, and that 500 were printed.Krutch, Joseph Wood. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1926: 183–184. The publisher gave Poe the full $14 in advance.
Charles Baudelaire's French translation was published in Paris by Michel Levy in 1864. Eureka. French translation by Charles Baudelaire. Paris: Michel Levy, 1864. HathiTrust.
Analysis Eureka presents themes and sentiments similar to some of those in Poe's fiction work, including attempts at breaking beyond the obstacle of death and specifically characters who return from death in stories like "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia". Similar to his theories on a good short story, Poe believes the universe is a self-contained, closed system.Peeples, Scott. "Poe's 'constructiveness' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher'", as collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge University Press, 2002: 187. . In coming to his conclusions, Poe uses ratiocination as a literary device, through his character C. Auguste Dupin, as if Poe himself were a detective solving the mystery of the universe. Eureka, then, is the culmination of Poe's interest in capturing truth through language, an extension of his interest in cryptography.Rosenheim, Shawn James. The Cryptographic Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997: 199. .
Eureka seems to continue the science fiction traditions he had used in works like "MS. Found in a Bottle" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". He further emphasizes the connection between his theory and fiction by saying that the universe itself is a written work: "The Universe is a plot of God", Poe says, and "the plots of God are perfect". Even so, Poe admits that the difficulty in explaining these theories comes in part from the limitations of language, often apologizing for or explaining his use of "common" or "vulgar" terms.Golding, Alan C. "Reductive and Expansive Language: Semantic Strategies in Eureka", collected in Poe Studies, vol. XI, no. 1, June 1978. p. 1.
Poe's decision to call Eureka a "prose poem" goes against some of his own "rules" of poetry which he had laid out in "The Philosophy of Composition" and "The Poetic Principle". In particular, Poe had called the ideal poem short, at most 100 lines, and utilizing the "most poetical topic in the world": the death of a beautiful woman. Poe himself suggested that Eureka be judged only as a work of art, not of science – possibly dismissing the seriousness of Eureka. Though he is using mathematical and scientific terms, he may actually be talking about aesthetics and suggesting that there is a close connection between science and art. This is an ironic sentiment, considering his message in the poem "To Science", in which he had shown a distaste for modern science's encroachments on spirituality and the artist's imagination.Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Introduction: Poe in Our Time", as collected in A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by J. Gerald Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2001: 11. . In Eureka Poe also discusses several astronomy-related matters, including the speed of the stars, the diameters of planets and distances among them, the weight of Earth, and the orbit of the newly discovered "Leverrier's planet",Campbell, Killis. The Mind of Poe and Other Studies. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962: 17. later christened Neptune.
Eureka ventures into transcendentalism, relying strongly on intuition, a movement and practice he had despised.Krutch, Joseph Wood. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1926: 185. Though he criticized the transcendental movement for what he referred to as incoherent mysticism, Eureka is more mystical than most transcendental works. Eureka has also been compared to the theories of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, and Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
The essay is written in a manner that anticipates its audience. For example, Poe uses more metaphors further into the work, in the belief that the reader becomes more interested.Golding, Alan C. "Reductive and Expansive Language: Semantic Strategies in Eureka", collected in Poe Studies, vol. XI, no. 1, June 1978. p. 4. Poe's voice crescendos throughout, starting as the modest seeker of truth, moving on to the satirist of logic, and finally ending as the master scholar.
Allusions "Eureka" – The title, Greek for "I have found it", references the exclamation by ArchimedesSilverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. Harper Perennial, 1991: 338. . after taking a bath and discovering the concept of displacement. Epicurus – Poe refers to the ancient Greek philosopher, speaking of "Epicurean atoms". Epicurus believed that reality is composed solely of atoms, or indivisible units of mass, and void. It has been suggested that Poe's reference to the "false scientist" Epicurus indicates that Eureka is actually a satire.Holman, Harriet R. "Splitting Poe's 'Epicurean Atoms'; Further Speculation on the Literary Satire of Eureka" collected in Poe Studies, vol. V, no. 2. December, 1972. p. 33. Aristotle – Poe refers to Plato's famous student as "Aries Tottle", who Poe writes is Turkish and produces his ideas from his nose like sneezes. Francis Bacon – The name "Hog" is a reference to the English philosopher and originator of the Baconian method. Euclid – Referred to as "Tuclid", a student of "Aries Tottle". Immanuel Kant – Poe describes Kant as the "Dutchman" who originated transcendentalism.
The comical presentation of these historic thinkers, including the puns on their names, suggests that Poe may have intended Eureka as a burlesque. Alternatively, his criticism of them might indicate Poe's need to challenge their conclusions before presenting his own.
Influence and significance Eureka has been read in many ways, in part because Poe's sincerity in the work is questionable. It has been considered prophetically scientific, intuitively romantic, and even calculatingly ironic.Page, Peter C. "Poe, Empedocles, and Intuition in Eureka", collected in Poe Studies, vol. XI, no. 2. December 1978. p. 21. Lacking scientific proof, Poe said it was not his goal to prove what he says to be true, but to convince through suggestion.