“A ‘living archive’… must be seen as an on-going, never-completed project.”
— Stuart Hall
Living archives, evolving projects.
What ho. I’m Percy.
When I proposed creating this archive as my final project for a graduate seminar in Archival Research Methods and Methodologies, I imagined a much simpler affair. The site was to feature four women from the life of Edgar Allan Poe, each of whom would be granted one page featuring a 500 hundred word biography, a hat tip to their archives, and a short list of whatever original works I could find through a cursory search of Archive.org.
Clearly, the project evolved.
As I studied and collected materials for these figures, their lives gripped me. I had begun my research with the proclamation that these women’s stories deserved to be told, but this had been a statement of principle—a declaration of intent more than a declaration of belief. As I studied the women, I was shocked to discover the strides they’d taken for both literature and women through their pens; shocked to discover the true pathos of their lives, the magnetism of their personalities, and the significance of their careers. These were, indeed, women whose stories needed telling.
I began my study of Anne Lynch Botta, Frances Sargent Osgood, Elizabeth Ellet, and Sarah Helen Whitman as an outgrowth of my interest in their mutual acquaintance, E. A. Poe. I continue that study now as a tribute to their own selves, independent of any other figure. Traditionally their import would be subordinated to the Poes and Longfellows of their era; overshadowed by the lives of the canonized few. Here I have elected to tell the story of the same era these men occupied, but to tell it from an oblique angle—to tell it slant.
Thank you for reading that story.
Percy Verret is currently pursuing a Masters degree in English through Middle Tennessee State University, where she also serves as a writing tutor and administrative assistant. A long-time lover of all things literature and language, Percy enjoys dabbling in poetry and shadows, deriving unparalleled delight from integrating both in visual design.
In addition to utilizing this passion to create all verbal and visual material for Tell it Slant, Percy has also employed her love of multi-modal expression to act as sole content creator for her literature-based Instagram account, The Blithering Bookster, where she posts images of her 2,500 book library and where she hosted the popular “Meet the American Poets” series in 2017.