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LITERATURE
Yeagley’s first subject of literary study was the Bible. However, in high school he felt an affinity with the 19th century American greats Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He also found pleasure and meaning in the English writers John Henry Newman, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to name a few. The earlier American authors of course availed themselves of the great literary themes of the Bible. This is no doubt the reason for Yeagley’s preference of their works.
During Yeagley’s tumultuous spiritual experience at Oberlin, he noticed very pertinent guides of aesthetic thought in the theoretical works of Edgar Allan Poe. These principles resounded from some deep consciousness of the physicality, or phenomenology of the human experience of beauty. Yeagley sensed that Poe’s principles were akin to those of his own in music, and he found encouragement through Poe.
Once Yeagley was at Yale Divinity, he continued his study of Poe, as well as readings in theology and other works. When he went to Emory University, Yeagley’s literary pursuits further focused. In fact, his Master’s thesis was entitled, “The Use Death In 19th Century American Literature,” concentrating on selected works of Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville. (His original thesis was entirely on Poe, and too radically original to be accepted even in a liberal establishment like Emory’s Institute Of Liberal Arts.)
While at Emory, in Atlanta, Georgia, Yeagley began his first creative writing endeavors. He developed a new kind of historical essay, which he called “Historical Fantasy,” which was basically a myth-like use of history, to account for modern, stereotypical phenomenon. His first book manuscript was a collection of essays entitled, “Historical Fantasies on Great Ethnic Themes of Western Civilization.” The essays were on individual aspects of certain cultures, including Italian, Greek, Gypsy, and Jewish. Yeagley also began writing poetry, very much in a 19th century eclectic, romantic style. “Songs of Solomon,” was his first collection. Each poem was inspired by a particular aspect of a different, individual woman.
Later returning to Connecticut, Yeagley continued writing and studying. His first creative short story was “Alam I Sugrah,” an Iranian Islamic fantasy about one single aspect of Islam, the hejob, or, the covering robe worn by the female. Yeagley wrote this in 1979, right after the Iranian Revolution and the taking of American hostages in Tehran. He ghost wrote a large autobiographical story of a non-Nazi German girl who lived through the Russian invasion of East Prussia. Then he wrote more short stories, in a collection comprising his second book manuscript. He planned several novels.
Not long after this, Yeagley was accepted into Harvard graduate school as a Special Student in the American Studies program. Yeagley was hoping to do a doctorate on the subject of death in 19th century American culture, but was not able to get far. He did, however, complete a book manuscript on Poe. It is called, “The End of The World In Poe: The Sociological Context of Adventism in Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe.” His professor, David Herbert Donald, was most impressed with the originality of the work, but also criticized it for its extravagant, exotic, and unnecessary research. Yeagley completed three book manuscripts on Poe before 1985.
In the early ‘80’s, Yeagley wrote the only epic poetry of the century, in the grand 19th century style of English romanticism. It is a collection of seven separate epics, totaling over one hundred pages of single space, lengthy verse. It is called “Jahan-dideh” (worldly-wise one, or, one who has seen the world), and it is dedicated to Her Imperial Majesty, Farah Dibah Pahlavi. It is a massive work, containing everything from history to prophecy, from romance to philosophy.
During that same period, Yeagley wrote what might be called his first novel, “The Smoking Steps.” It is a very peculiar historical narrative of remote Eastern Europe. It calls together strange and unexpected accounts of famous characters like Dracula, Timur the Lame, and obscure facts about music, magic, superstition, and complete fictional events. It is the ultimate “Historical Fantasy,” the form which Yeagley had developed earlier. It is intentionally unfinished, leaving everything in a dream.
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