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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) http://tinyurl.com/EAPoe

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Plentiful Gold

From "Von Kemplelen and His Discovery," 1849. Read Online Download PDF

Reader: Daniel Maloney

Ever consider how different the history of California would be if there had never been a gold rush? Or better yet, what if the forty-niners had learned that gold had lost all its value? In 1849 Baltimore's master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe wrote "Von Kemplelen and His Discovery," about a scientist who finally learns the secret of turning lead to gold. The result had far-reaching consequences—especially, according the narrator of Poe's tale, for California.

Speculation, of course, is busy as to the immediate and ultimate results of this discovery—a discovery which few thinking persons will hesitate in referring to an increased interest in the matter of gold generally by the late developments in California; and this reflection brings us inevitably to another—the exceeding inopportuneness of Von Kempelen's analysis. If many were prevented from adventuring to California by the mere apprehension that gold would so materially diminish in value, on account of its plentifulness in the mines there. . . what impression will be wrought now, upon the minds of those about to emigrate, and especially upon the minds of those actually in the mineral region, by the announcement of the astounding discovery of Von Kempelen? . . . the announcement of the discovery six months ago would have had material influence in regard to the settlement of California.

Though not the most famous of Poe's fanciful stories and poems—works like "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Raven"—Poe's imaginative reshaping of California's mineral worth is nevertheless delightful.