Poaxes: Poe's Hoax Stories
In America, in the year 1835, all eyes were on the moon. This increase in fascination was brought on by the recent reappearance of Haley’s Comet. There was even a telescope in central park that charged money for hopeful viewers who were eager to catch a glimpse. On the heels of this sudden interest in space, Poe wrote a hoax concerning a fictitious journey to the moon. Unfortunately for Poe, someone else beat him to the punch. A man named Locke published a series of articles in the New York Sun detailing the construction of a telescope that was able to see all the way to the moon. Over a series of six days, Locke published further articles detailing all the strange lunar life that the moon held, including lunar man-bats. The articles were, of course, a hoax, but this did not stop many people of the time from believing the articles.
Although Poe’s work, “The Unparalleled Adventure of one Hans Pfaall” was published three weeks before Locke’s articles, his story received less attention, and it was all too easy for Locke to steal his thunder. This was due, in part, to the fact that, unlike Locke’s articles, Poe’s work did not read as an attempt at reporting, but more like a narrative story. Poe, however, staunchly defended his hoax. He even went so far as to insult Locke’s articles: “As both are hoaxes on the same subject, the moon, - moreover as both attempt to give plausibility by scientific detail, - the author of ‘Hans Pfaall’ thinks it necessary to say, in self-defense, that his own...was published...about three weeks before the commencement of Mr. L.’s in the New York Sun” (Poe 122). He goes on to say, “No one should have been deceived - to point out those particulars of the story which should have been sufficient to establish its real character...that the public was misled, even for an instant, merely proves the gross ignorance which is so generally prevalent upon subjects of an astronomical nature” (Poe 122). This quote is from the end note of “Hans Pfall” in which Poe goes on to address each bit of science in Locke’s hoax and tear it apart.
Despite Poe’s less than courteous response, he had the right idea as to what interested the public at that time. “The 1830s were an age of curiosity and optimism about science in which discoveries were shared as public spectacle.” New scientific discoveries were being made every day, and the public waited, eager to hear of each new wonder. The audience of the 1830s lacked some of the cynicism that the public might bring to the news today. There was just enough scientific knowledge available to spark the public’s imagination that anything could potentially be achieved through science.
Poe plays on this idea in another hoax story of his, “The Balloon-Hoax.” The story reads as journal entries from a member of a party who has constructed a flying balloon that carries them across the ocean. Poe published this story in 1844 as an article in the New York Sun, the very same paper that had published Locke’s moon hoax years before. Poe described the public’s response as enthusiastic and claims that there was a great rush to get a copy of his article. There was enough public response that the paper had to print a retraction:
BALLOON - The mails from the South last Saturday night not having brought a confirmation of the arrival of the Balloon from England, the particulars of which from our correspondent we detailed in our Extra, we are inclined to believe that the intelligence is erroneous. The description of the Balloon and the voyage was written with a minuteness and scientific ability calculated to obtain credit everywhere, and was read with great pleasure and satisfaction. We by no means think such a project impossible.
Poe’s repeated use of science and balloon travel as his material for his hoax stories reflects the spirit of the day. His stories come from, and were written for, a society that was looking forward, towards the wonders of the future.
--Mary Katherine Calderini
Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Stories. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.