Edgar Allen Poe—Cryptogram Man

January 22, 2010

January 19 marked the 201^st anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's birth. One of the greatest American writers, much is known about his life apart from his famous works. Particularly interesting to the MAA was Poe's keen interest in cryptology and his famous challenge issued in 1839.

In December 1839, Poe issued a challenge to the readers of the Philadelphia paper Alexander's Weekly that he could solve any simple substitution cipher they submitted. He proceeded to solve all of them, including one in which seven different alphabets were used.

Realizing the public interest in the topic, Poe wrote "The Gold-Bug," a short story set on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. In the story, William Legrand is bitten by a gold-colored bug and becomes obsessed with searching for treasure. He invites his closest friend, the narrator, to his home on Sullivan's Island and they, along with Legrand's servant, Jupiter, search for treasure using a polyphonic substitution cipher.

Poe's short story inspired Robert Lewis Stevenson to write Treasure Island in 1883. The story also had an impact on William F. Friedman, who would become America's foremost cryptologist. Friedman (1891-1969) became head of the research division of the U.S. Army's Signals Intelligence Service in the 1930s. The SIS broke Japan's PURPLE cipher, thus helping to reveal Japanese diplomatic secrets before the outbreak of World War II era.

Today, visitors to the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore can see artifacts relating to Poe's life and work. Included in the exhibit are examples of ciphers and cryptograms submitted to the Messenger that Poe himself solved on January 22, 1840 and January 29, 1840.

Sources: MDHS News, p. 15 (Fall 2009); Edgar Allen Poe and Cryptography by R. Morelli.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.