A murder case in 1830s New York City inspires an Edgar Allan Poe story.

“All accounts agree that Poe had a dramatically low tolerance for alcohol. At a time when dram shops and rum holes lined the streets, and the phrase ‘Let’s liquor’ was a common greeting, Poe’s constitution left him uniquely vulnerable. He was unable to stop at a single drink, and the first glass was sufficient to transform him from a personable gentleman to a coarse and staggering ‘good-for-nought.’ His friend Frederick Thomas observed that ‘if he took but one glass of weak wine or beer or cider, the Rubicon of the cup was passed with him, and it always ended in excess and sickness.’ The French poet Charles Baudelaire, himself no stranger to stimulants, would note that Poe ‘did not drink like an ordinary toper, but like a savage, with an altogether American energy and fear of wasting a minute, as though he was accomplishing an act of murder, as though there was something inside him that he had to kill.’”

Raven’s Eye Imperial Stout
Midnight Wit Ale

I thought Stashower did a very thorough job but perhaps for the same reason I felt myself getting bogged down with details somewhere in the middle of the book. I most enjoyed the parts that discussed Edgar Allen Poe and the literary and newspaper world of that time. The parts that discussed Restall were really interesting, too. The parts that discussed the Mary Rogers murder seemed to cover the detective aspects and not her personal life so I was not as interested as I might have been. But, I think Stashower was thorough in his research and is a good writer and it was a good read overall. ( )

This book purports to tell the history of the 1841 murder of Mary Rogers, the true story that inspired Edgar A. Poe's “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” As a big fan of Mr. Poe I was pretty excited to get the book, and really enjoyed some of it. As I read though I kept wondering who the book was written for. It is obviously not intended for serious students of either history or literature. The lack of endnotes was somewhat frustrating, as I would have liked to have known the sources of some of the book's more intriguing quotes. It's not really for a big fan of Poe, as so much of the book is biographical, and any Poe fan would probably know most of it already. I suppose you could be a fan of Poe and never read any biographical material, in which case this would be an entertaining book. The problem is that it is neither one thing nor another. The story of Poe's life is told from birth to death, but so much is left out as to be fairly useless as a real biography. The story of poor Mary Rogers is told, but there was so much more that could have been said about the time and place, and the importance that this case took on. Stashower does go into that history somewhat. The story of the newspaper wars sounds familiar to us today with our battling pundits on cable news. The history of the sexual mores of the time, particularly concerning abortion and how the view of womanhood and “maidenly virtue” served to oppress and endanger women was fascinating. I would have preferred more of that and less about Poe's time in the army and Poe's relationship with his foster father.

The story of the composition of the story, along with the circumstances of Poe's life as he drew on the Mary Rogers tragedy for his second tale of ratiocination featuring August Dupin, is the meat of the book, and it is indeed interesting. Watching Poe struggle to revise his text as new facts are coming out is first rate literary drama.

If the focus had been tightened a bit this could have been a better book. As it is, it is still a good and interesting read. ( )

Kill me now. I threw this book away at the last chapter. Couldn't bare it anymore!

The last time anyone saw Mary C. Rogers of New York was Sunday July 25, 1841. To this day the crime remains unsolved. While Stashower makes no attempt to unravel this mystery in The Beautiful Cigar Girl, Edgar Allan Poe believes he is able to do so through his fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin who has already proven himself in The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

This book is, at once, a true crime about the disappearance of Mary Rogers and a biography of Edgar Allan Poe. Frankly, more Poe than Rogers, which was fine by me, he’s a fascinating character.

Stashower follows Poe’s life from the death of his, actor, parents, through his short-lived riches as a ward of the Allen family, to his life of constant struggle to get ahead while being done in by both much of his own doings and his being taken advantage of by employers, publishers and partners.

This work is also a fascinating eye-opener to the workings of the “penny press” of this era. It would appear that the newspapers of the day were far more rumor, speculation and editorial opinion than fact which seems sadly lacking, even in the Police Gazette. This, no doubt, coupled with the police being paid bonuses by victims when property was recovered, added to the problem of solving a murder, where the victim was not wealthy and there was no property to recover. As a matter of fact, Ms Rogers had been missing for a week before the police began investigating her death due to the pressure of the city editors who were familiar with Mary through her work as the counter girl at Anderson’s Cigar Store. Possibly because of this delay in the investigation police found themselves at a number of dead ends in finding Mary’s killer, or killers.

Poe felt that his own detection abilities could solve this murder where the police have failed and employed Dupin to do so in The Mystery of Marie Roget which was released in three installments for the Ladies’ Companion. The reworking of the finale of this story put a twist on Poe’s personality that had not occurred to me before, but makes perfect sense.

The title, The Beautiful Cigar Girl, is misleading. This book is really a biography of Edgar Allen Poe and a study in how fiction is developed from fact. It also serves to peak the readers’ interest in the workings of the press in the mid 19th century. Well worth the read.

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