Was The Raven Any Good?

 

   The poem "The Raven" was published on this day in 1845 in a New York newspaper. The poem was soon republished around the country and made the author, Edgar Allan Poe, famous, though it never made him much money. Critics have argued ever since about whether "The Raven" is a great poem or sentimental trash. Everyone agrees it's one of the most famous poems ever written.

   When WannaskaWriter and I started a journal of art, history and humor in 1994, we named it The Raven. People always assumed that we had named it after the poem. I'm not sure why. Two years later, the new pro football team in Baltimore named themselves after the poem so I guess people lumped us in with them.

   Many years ago WannaskaWriter and I were bemoaning the fact that the aging children of Roseau County's pioneers were dying off and were taking their stories with them. We did this bemoaning in the kitchen of my old house just before Christmas of '96. I was driving school bus then and was enjoying the long school closure. WannaskaWriter was employed at the Toy Factory he used to work at.

   The Toy Factory was shut down for two weeks so WW stopped over to say hello. He was driving his Four Wheel Drive white Chevy pickup with a diesel engine which he had to leave running between October and April because the engine would not start when it was cold. But diesel fuel was cheaper then and the engine would idle contentedly on a couple of gallons of fuel per day.

   Once WW removed his boots and coveralls, I offered him a beer and we began our bemoaning. We had worked together earlier gathering stories for the Roseau County Centennial Book. This had been like pulling teeth, because the people we contacted claimed they had nothing to say, either out of modesty, or because they would not believe how exotic their supposed hum-drum lives were to the present generation.

   We thought we could use the lessons we learned earlier to dig deeper and find those stories we knew were out there. We told ourselves we could print these stories in a little paper and give it to the people in our township. But first we needed a name. We flipped a coin and I got to use my choice The Raven, and WW got to write the subtitle, "Northwest Minnesota's Original Art, History and Humor Journal."

   By February, we had gathered some dandy stories and WW had laid out and printed 50 copies of the first Raven. We drove around Palmville Township and put them in mailboxes until the mailman gently reminded us that was illegal. So we started mailing them out to distant friends and relatives as well as to the Palmvilleans. There was a story about The Raven in the local paper and people started sending money. WW rented a copier. Then he bought a really good color laser printer. The Raven went from being a monthly to a quarterly. Production standards were high.

   For a while we maintained the fiction that we were co-editors, but WW did all the grunt work. I became "Founder and contributing editor." After the good people of Minnesota voted to dedicate a portion of the state sales tax to the arts, WW was able to get grants to cover expenses, but like Poe, he never made any money off The Raven. It was truly a labor of love. Several mental health professionals told WW The Raven kept him sane during his long years at the Toy Factory. You can't put a price on that. The Raven ceased publication in 2018 shortly after WW downed tools at the Toy Factory.

   Dare anyone ever deny that The Raven did very well what it set out to do? Nevermore!

Image by Steven G. Reynolds