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107-526: Arthur Gordon Maling (June 11, 1923 – October 24, 2013) was an American writer of crime and thriller novels. He graduated from Francis W. Parker School , Chicago in 1940; in 1944 he received a B.A. from Harvard University . In the Second World War Maling was an ensign in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1945. From 1945 to 1946 he was a reporter for The San Diego Journal . After 1946, he worked as an executive manager for Maling Brothers,

214-438: A Presbyterian wedding ceremony performed by Amasa Converse at their Richmond boarding house, with a witness falsely attesting Clemm's age as 21. In 1838, Poe relocated to Philadelphia , where he lived at four different residences between 1838 and 1844, one of which at 532 N. 7th Street has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark . That same year, Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

321-550: A 40-page collection of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems , attributed only to "A Bostonian". 50 copies were printed, and the book received virtually no attention. Poe's 1st Regiment of Artillery was posted to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina , before embarking on the brig Waltham on November 8, 1827. Poe was promoted to "artificer", an enlisted tradesman tasked with preparing shells for artillery. His monthly pay doubled. Poe served for two years, attaining

428-561: A change in American crime fiction. There was a shift into hard-boiled novels and their depictions of realism. Dashiell Hammett and his work, including Red Harvest (1929), offered a more realistic social perspective to crime fiction, referencing events such as the Great Depression . James M. Cain contributed The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). This novel includes a married woman trying to murder her own husband with

535-419: A crime. Readers speak of crime fiction as a mode of escapism to cope with other aspects of their lives. Crime fiction provides distraction from readers' personal lives through a strong narrative at a comfortable distance. Forensic crime novels have been referred to as "distraction therapy", proposing that crime fiction can improve mental health and be considered as a form of treatment to prevent depression. In

642-497: A criminal, with the story unfolding in normal chronology and the criminal already being known to the audience. The latter involves a climax where titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence from expert witnesses in a court. " The Hunchback's Tale " is another early courtroom drama , presented as a suspenseful comedy. The earliest known modern crime fiction is E. T. A. Hoffmann 's 1819 novella "Mademoiselle de Scudéri". Also, Thomas Skinner Surr 's anonymous Richmond

749-548: A diamond ring on every finger. It is believed that only twelve copies have survived of Poe's first book Tamerlane and Other Poems . In December 2009, one copy sold at Christie's auctioneers in New York City for $ 662,500, a record price paid for a work of American literature. Eureka: A Prose Poem , an essay written in 1848, included a cosmological theory that presaged the Big Bang theory by 80 years, as well as

856-465: A dormitory. Allan did send additional money and clothes, but Poe's debts increased. Poe gave up on the university after a year, but did not feel welcome to return to Richmond, especially when he learned that his sweetheart, Royster, had married another man, Alexander Shelton. Instead, he traveled to Boston in April 1827, sustaining himself with odd jobs as a clerk and newspaper contributor. Poe started using

963-478: A few stories with a Philadelphia publication and began work on his only drama, Politian . The Baltimore Saturday Visiter awarded him a prize in October 1833 for his often overlooked short story " MS. Found in a Bottle ". The tale brought him to the attention of John P. Kennedy , a Baltimorean of considerable means who helped Poe place some of his other stories and introduced him to Thomas W. White, editor of

1070-604: A forerunner of Arthur Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes , appeared in works such as " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " (1841), " The Mystery of Marie Rogêt " (1842), and " The Purloined Letter " (1844). With his Dupin stories, Poe provided the framework for the classic detective story. The detective's unnamed companion is the narrator of the stories and a prototype for the character of Dr. Watson in later Sherlock Holmes stories. Wilkie Collins ' epistolary novel The Woman in White

1177-561: A form of electoral fraud in which citizens were forced to vote for a particular candidate, sometimes leading to violence and even murder. Immediately after Poe's death, his literary rival Rufus Wilmot Griswold , wrote a slanted, high-profile obituary under a pseudonym, filled with falsehoods that cast Poe as a lunatic, and which described him as a person who "walked the streets, in madness or melancholy, with lips moving in indistinct curses, or with eyes upturned in passionate prayers, (never for himself, for he felt, or professed to feel, that he

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1284-541: A grudge against Poe since 1842. Griswold somehow became Poe's literary executor and attempted to destroy his enemy's reputation after his death. Griswold wrote a biographical article of Poe called "Memoir of the Author", which he included in an 1850 volume of the collected works. There he depicted Poe as a depraved, drunken, drug-addled madman, including some of Poe's "letters" as evidence. Many of his claims were either outright lies or obvious distortions; for example, there

1391-678: A little more pains over it: the result hardly does credit to the method." Biographer Joseph Wood Krutch described the essay as "a rather highly ingenious exercise in the art of rationalization". During his lifetime, Poe was mostly recognized as a literary critic. The vast majority of Edgar Allan Poe's writings are nonfictional. Contemporary critic James Russell Lowell called him, “the most discriminating, philosophical, and fearless critic upon imaginative works who has written in America,” suggesting—rhetorically—that he occasionally used prussic acid instead of ink. Poe's often caustic reviews earned him

1498-501: A living as a writer were mostly unsuccessful. However, he eventually managed to earn a living by his pen alone, becoming one of the first American authors to do so. His efforts were initially hampered by the lack of an international copyright law . American publishers often chose to sell unauthorized copies of works by British authors rather than pay for new work written by Americans, regardless of merit. The initially anemic reception of Edgar Allan Poe's work may also have been influenced by

1605-443: A much-loved movie entitled The Lady Vanishes (1938), and Ira Levin 's (born 1929) science-fiction thriller The Boys from Brazil (1976), which was filmed in 1978 . Older novels can often be retrieved from the ever-growing Project Gutenberg database. Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe ( né   Edgar Poe ; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer , poet , editor , and literary critic who

1712-681: A page saying, "To the U.S. Corps of Cadets this volume is respectfully dedicated". It once again reprinted the somewhat lengthy poems, “Tamerlane,” and “Al Araaf,” while also including six previously unpublished poems, conspicuous among which are, “ To Helen ", and " The City in the Sea ". Poe returned to Baltimore and to his aunt, brother, and cousin in March 1831. His elder brother Henry had been seriously ill for some time, in part due to complications resulting from alcoholism, and he died on August 1, 1831. After his brother's death, Poe's earnest attempts to make

1819-601: A period." Around this time, Poe attempted to secure a position in the administration of John Tyler , claiming that he was a member of the Whig Party . He hoped to be appointed to the United States Custom House in Philadelphia with help from President Tyler's son Robert , an acquaintance of Poe's friend Frederick Thomas. However, Poe failed to appear for a meeting with Thomas to discuss

1926-507: A relationship with his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster. On October 3, 1849, Poe was found semiconscious in Baltimore , "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to Joseph W. Walker, who found him. He was taken to Washington Medical College , where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849, at 5:00 in the morning. Poe was not coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and why he

2033-476: A retail shoe chain. This article about a novelist of the United States born in the 1920s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Crime novel It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction and science fiction , but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres , including detective fiction (such as

2140-515: A review of his poetry by influential critic John Neal , which prompted Poe to dedicate one of the poems to Neal in his second book, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems , published in Baltimore in 1829. Poe traveled to West Point and matriculated as a cadet on July 1, 1830. In October 1830, Allan married his second wife Louisa Patterson. This marriage and the bitter quarrels with Poe over children born to Allan out of extramarital affairs led to

2247-442: A series in 1999 entitled "Pan Classic Crime", which includes a handful of novels by Eric Ambler , but also American Hillary Waugh 's Last Seen Wearing ... . In 2000, Edinburgh -based Canongate Books started a series called "Canongate Crime Classics" —both whodunnits and roman noir about amnesia and insanity —and other novels. However, books brought out by smaller publishers such as Canongate Books are usually not stocked by

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2354-465: A steamy sex scene between Sharon Stone and William Baldwin straight from the 1993 movie , and again, Bret Easton Ellis 's American Psycho (1991). Bloomsbury Publishing PLC , though, have launched what they call "Bloomsbury Film Classics"—a series of original novels on which feature films were based. This series includes, for example, Ethel Lina White 's novel The Wheel Spins (1936), which Alfred Hitchcock —before he went to Hollywood—turned into

2461-412: A still from the movie on the front cover and the film credits on the back cover of the book—yet another marketing strategy aimed at those cinemagoers who may want to do both: first read the book and then watch the film (or vice versa). Recent examples include Patricia Highsmith 's The Talented Mr. Ripley (originally published in 1955), Ira Levin 's Sliver (1991), with the cover photograph depicting

2568-458: A story forward in order to unravel mysteries. Likewise, the feature of detectives was popularized by Edgar Allan Poe and Conan Doyle . Hard-boiled detective stories attracted a decent amount of attention to the genre in America and France as well. Within crime fiction, it can also be common to use dark themes from real life, such as slavery , organized crime , and more. Aside from general themes, referencing instances of crime in real life

2675-645: A story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of " The Three Apples ", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights . In this tale, a fisherman discovers a heavy locked chest along the Tigris River, and he sells it to the Abbasid Caliph , Harun al-Rashid , who then has the chest broken open, only to find inside it the dead body of a young woman who was cut into pieces. Harun orders his vizier , Ja'far ibn Yahya , to solve

2782-485: A system of student self-government, allowing students to choose their own studies, make their own arrangements for boarding, and report all wrongdoing to the faculty. The unique system was rather chaotic, and there was a high dropout rate. During his time there, Poe lost touch with Royster and also became estranged from his foster father over gambling debts. He claimed that Allan had not given him sufficient money to register for classes, purchase texts, or procure and furnish

2889-426: A third volume of poems, simply titled, Poems . The book was financed with help from his fellow cadets at West Point, some of whom donated as much as 75 cents to the cause. The total raised was approximately $ 170. They may have been expecting verses similar to the satirical ones Poe had written about commanding officers in the past. The book was printed by Elam Bliss of New York, labeled as "Second Edition", and included

2996-548: A two-story brick house called Moldavia. Poe may have become engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster before he registered at the University of Virginia in February 1826 to study ancient and modern languages. The university was in its infancy, established on the ideals of its founder, Thomas Jefferson . It had strict rules against gambling, horses, guns, tobacco, and alcohol, but these rules were mostly ignored. Jefferson enacted

3103-643: A year later from pulmonary tuberculosis . Poe was then taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant in Richmond, Virginia , who dealt in a variety of goods, including cloth, wheat, tombstones, tobacco, and slaves. The Allans served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", although they never formally adopted him. The Allan family had Poe baptized into the Episcopal Church in 1812. John Allan alternately spoiled and aggressively disciplined his foster son. The family sailed to

3210-535: Is Agatha Christie , whose texts, originally published between 1920 and her death in 1976, are available in UK and US editions in all English-speaking nations. Christie's works, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple , have given her the title the Queen of Crime, and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre. Her most famous novels include Murder on

3317-491: Is Florida -based author Carl Hiaasen , who has been publishing books since 1981, all of which are readily available. From time to time, publishing houses decide, for commercial purposes, to revive long-forgotten authors, and reprint one or two of their more commercially successful novels. Apart from Penguin Books , which for this purpose have resorted to their old green cover and dug out some of their vintage authors. Pan started

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3424-786: Is alleged to have begun to drink heavily due to the stress he suffered as a result of her illness. He then left Graham's and attempted to find a new position, for a time again angling for a government post. He finally decided to return to New York where he worked briefly at the Evening Mirror before becoming editor of the Broadway Journal , and later its owner. There Poe alienated himself from other writers by, among other things, publicly accusing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism , though Longfellow never responded. Poe later emended his accusations by expressing his belief that many writers, having absorbed ideas from others in

3531-514: Is also common in several works of crime fiction. These reflections of reality can be expressed in many ways. For instance, crime fiction in Spain expressed grievances with authority, which was opposite to the instances in Japan that credited the government's functionality. Espionage is another prominent inclusion in many works of crime fiction. It includes the use of political intrigue, morality, and

3638-468: Is an oversimplification. Poe was increasingly unstable after his wife's death. He attempted to court the poet Sarah Helen Whitman , who lived in Providence, Rhode Island . Their engagement failed, purportedly because of Poe's drinking and erratic behavior. There is also strong evidence that Whitman's mother intervened and did much to derail the relationship. Poe then returned to Richmond and resumed

3745-435: Is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre . He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of early American literature . Poe was one of the country's first successful practitioners of the short story , and is generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. In addition, he

3852-458: Is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of science fiction . He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living by writing alone, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career. Poe was born in Boston . He was the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe . His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when Eliza died the following year, Poe

3959-529: Is from 1827 ; another early full-length short story in the genre is The Rector of Veilbye by Danish author Steen Steensen Blicher , published in 1829. A further example of crime detection can be found in Letitia Elizabeth Landon 's story The Knife , published in 1832, although here the truth remains in doubt at the end. Better known are the earlier dark works of Edgar Allan Poe . His brilliant and eccentric detective C. Auguste Dupin ,

4066-412: Is little to no evidence that Edgar Allan Poe was a drug addict. Griswold's book was denounced by those who knew Poe well, including John Neal, who published an article defending Poe and attacking Griswold as a " Rhadamanthus , who is not to be bilked of his fee, a thimble-full of newspaper notoriety". Griswold's book nevertheless became a popularly accepted biographical source. This was in part because it

4173-679: The Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. In 1835, Poe became assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger , but White discharged him within a few weeks, allegedly for being drunk on the job. Poe then returned to Baltimore , where he obtained a license to marry his cousin Virginia on September 22, 1835, though it is unknown if they were actually married at that time. He was 26 and she

4280-599: The Father Brown short stories, and Henry Christopher Bailey . The Golden Age also had roots in the US. As used by S. S. Van Dine , fictional character Philo Vance also took advantage of an inflated personality and a high-class background in a plethora of novels. In 1929, Father Ronald Knox wrote the ‘Detective Story Decalogue,’ mentioning some conditions of the era. Early foreshadowing and functioning roles for characters were discussed, as well as other items. Ellery Queen

4387-467: The Jesuits at St. John's College, now Fordham University . Virginia died at the cottage on January 30, 1847. Biographers and critics often suggest that Poe's frequent theme of the "death of a beautiful woman" stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his wife. However, as Poe was a prolific writer before Virginia's death, others have suggested that this explanation of his work

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4494-599: The Panic of 1837 . There was a booming growth in American periodicals around this time, fueled in part by new technology, but many did not last beyond a few issues. Publishers often refused to pay their writers or paid them much later than they promised, and Poe repeatedly resorted to humiliating pleas for money and other assistance. After his early attempts at poetry, Poe turned his attention to prose, perhaps based on John Neal's critiques in The Yankee magazine. He placed

4601-534: The pseudonym Henri Le Rennet during this period. As Poe was unable to support himself, he decided to enlist in the United States Army as a private on May 27, 1827, using the name "Edgar A. Perry". Although he claimed that he was 22 years old , he was actually 18. He first served at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor for five dollars a month. That same year, his first book was published,

4708-648: The whodunit ), courtroom drama , hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers . Proto-science and crime fictions have been composed across history, and in this category can be placed texts as varied as the Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia , the Mahabharata from ancient India , the Book of Tobit , Urashima Tarō from ancient Japan , the One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ), and more. One example of

4815-652: The "Grand Master" of 20th-century Chinese detective fiction, translated Sherlock Holmes into classical and vernacular Chinese. In the late 1910s, Cheng began writing his own detective fiction series, Sherlock in Shanghai , mimicking Conan Doyle's style, but relating better to a Chinese audience. During the Mao era , crime fiction was suppressed and mainly Soviet-styled and anticapitalist. In the post-Mao era, crime fiction in China focused on corruption and harsh living conditions during

4922-641: The 19th century to become more popular in Europe than in the United States. Poe was particularly esteemed in France, in part due to early translations of his work by Charles Baudelaire . Baudelaire's translations became definitive renditions of Poe's work in Continental Europe. Poe's early mystery tales featuring the detective, C. Auguste Dupin , though not numerous, laid the groundwork for similar characters that would eventually become famous throughout

5029-555: The 19th century was crucial in popularising crime fiction and related genres. Literary 'variety' magazines, such as Strand , McClure's , and Harper's , quickly became central to the overall structure and function of popular fiction in society, providing a mass-produced medium that offered cheap, illustrated publications that were essentially disposable. Like the works of many other important fiction writers of his day—e.g. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens —Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared in serial form in

5136-590: The Allans in 1820. In 1824, he served as the lieutenant of the Richmond youth honor guard as the city celebrated the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette . In March 1825, Allan's uncle and business benefactor William Galt died, who was said to be one of the wealthiest men in Richmond, leaving Allan several acres of real estate. The inheritance was estimated at $ 750,000 (equivalent to $ 20,000,000 in 2023). By summer 1825, Allan celebrated his expansive wealth by purchasing

5243-586: The English language, and noted its influence on later authors such as Doyle, Henry James , B. Traven , and David Morrell . Horror author and historian H. P. Lovecraft was heavily influenced by Poe's horror tales, dedicating an entire section of his long essay, " Supernatural Horror in Literature ", to his influence on the genre. In his letters, Lovecraft described Poe as his "God of Fiction". Lovecraft's earliest stories are clearly influenced by Poe. At

5350-737: The Inner Life in 1863, in which she claimed to have "received" new compositions by Poe. However, the writings appeared to be simple revisions of previously published poems. Poe has also received criticism. This is partly because of the negative perception of his personal character and its influence upon his reputation. William Butler Yeats was occasionally critical of Poe and once called him "vulgar". Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson reacted to "The Raven" by saying, "I see nothing in it", and derisively referred to Poe as "the jingle man". Aldous Huxley wrote that Poe's writing "falls into vulgarity" by being "too poetical"—the equivalent of wearing

5457-575: The Mao era (such as the Cultural Revolution ). The Golden Age, which spanned from the 1920s to 1954, was a period of time featuring the creation of renowned works by several authors. Many of these authors were British. Agatha Christie wrote The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). These novels commonly prioritized the allure of exploring mysteries in

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5564-575: The Mountains of Madness directly quotes him. Lovecraft made extensive use of Poe's concept of the “unity of effect” in his fiction. Alfred Hitchcock once said, "It's because I liked Edgar Allan Poe's stories so much that I began to make suspense films". Many references to Poe's works are present in Vladimir Nabokov 's novels. Other writers inspired by Poe's poetry and fiction include, but are not limited to, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, and

5671-524: The Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), and the world's best-selling mystery And Then There Were None (1939). Other less successful, contemporary authors who are still writing have seen reprints of their earlier works, due to current overwhelming popularity of crime fiction texts among audiences. One example is Val McDermid , whose first book appeared as far back as 1987; another

5778-513: The Penn Magazine, a Monthly Literary journal to be edited and published in the city of Philadelphia by Edgar A. Poe." However, Poe died before the journal could be produced. Poe left Burton's after a year and found a position as writer and co-editor at Graham's Magazine , which was a successful monthly publication. In the last number of Graham's for 1841, Poe was among the co-signatories to an editorial note of celebration concerning

5885-795: The United Kingdom in 1815, and Poe attended a grammar school for a short period in Irvine, Ayrshire , Scotland, where Allan was born, before rejoining the family in London in 1816. There he studied at a boarding school in Chelsea until summer 1817. He was subsequently entered at the Reverend John Bransby 's Manor House School in Stoke Newington , then a suburb 4 miles (6 km) north of London. Poe moved to Richmond with

5992-498: The appointment in mid-September 1842, claiming to have been sick, though Thomas believed that he had been drunk. Poe was promised an appointment, but all positions were eventually filled by others. One evening in January 1842, Virginia showed the first signs of consumption, or tuberculosis , while singing and playing the piano, which Poe described as the breaking of a blood vessel in her throat. She only partially recovered, and Poe

6099-576: The assistance of a potential suitor. This theme extends to his other work, Double Indemnity (1934). Such elements of the book were a reference to the Gray and Snyder trial. Raymond Chandler was a significant author who managed to see some works made into films. In 1944, he argued for the genre to be seen critically in his essay from ‘ The Simple Art of Murder .’ Crime fiction provides unique psychological impacts on readers and enables them to become mediated witnesses through identifying with eyewitnesses of

6206-439: The assumed name of Edgar A. Perry, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems , which was credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife Frances in 1829. However, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point , declared his intention to become a writer, primarily of poems, and parted ways with Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose, and spent

6313-429: The beat generation's Allen Ginsberg. In Japan, Edogawa Ranpo was so inspired by Poe that his pen name is a rendering of his name into Japanese. Poe's works have spawned many imitators. One trend among Poe's more ardent fans has been the tendency to employ clairvoyants or psychics to "channel” original poems from Poe's spirit. One of the most notable of these manuscripts was by Lizzie Doten , who published, Poems from

6420-409: The brain" or "cerebral inflammation", common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery. Speculation has included delirium tremens , heart disease , epilepsy , syphilis , meningeal inflammation , cholera , carbon monoxide poisoning , and rabies . One theory dating from 1872 suggests that Poe's death resulted from cooping ,

6527-465: The country. The Spanish writers emphasized the corruption and ineptitude of the police, and depicted the authorities and the wealthy in very negative terms. In China, crime fiction is a major literary tradition, with works dating to the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. Modern Chinese crime fiction emerged from the 1890s, and was also influenced by translations of foreign works. Cheng Xiaoqing , considered

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6634-480: The crime and find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails his assignment. The story has been described as a " whodunit " murder mystery with multiple plot twists . The story has detective fiction elements. Two other Arabian Nights stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliest fictional detectives , who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict

6741-470: The crimes are usually unsolved, and clues are left for the reader to decipher. Famous writers include Leonardo Sciascia , Umberto Eco , and Carlo Emilio Gadda . In Spain, The Nail and Other Tales of Mystery and Crime was published by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón in 1853. Crime fiction in Spain (also curtailed in Francoist Spain ) took on some special characteristics that reflected the culture of

6848-717: The day after her burial. Perhaps softened by his wife's death, Allan agreed to support Poe's desire to receive an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York . Poe was finally discharged on April 15, 1829, after securing a replacement to finish his enlistment. Before entering West Point, he moved to Baltimore, where he stayed with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, her daughter Virginia Eliza Clemm (Poe's first cousin), his brother Henry, and his invalid grandmother Elizabeth Cairnes Poe. That September, Poe received "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard" in

6955-589: The density and rotation of planets. Poe had a keen interest in cryptography . He had placed a notice of his abilities in the Philadelphia paper Alexander's Weekly (Express) Messenger , inviting submissions of ciphers which he proceeded to solve. In July 1841, Poe had published an essay called "A Few Words on Secret Writing" in Graham's Magazine . Capitalizing on public interest in the topic, he wrote " The Gold-Bug " incorporating ciphers as an essential part of

7062-454: The development of literature throughout the world and even impacted such specialized fields as cosmology and cryptography . Since his death, he and his writings have appeared throughout popular culture in such fields as art, photography, literary allusions, music, motion pictures, and television . Several of his homes are dedicated museums. In addition, The Mystery Writers of America presents an annual Edgar Award for distinguished work in

7169-466: The didactic", writing poetry that was preachy, derivative, and thematically plagiarized. Poe correctly predicted that Longfellow's reputation and style of poetry would decline, concluding, "We grant him high qualities, but deny him the Future". Poe became known as the creator of a type of fiction that was difficult to categorize and nearly impossible to imitate. He was one of the first American authors of

7276-542: The existence of spies. Prior media used the Cold War for inspiration and provided commentary on such events. Examples include numerous works by John le Carré and Gorky Park (1981), which was written by Martin Cruz Smith . Inspiration can be drawn from the legal system around the world, with varying degrees of realism. In these cases, a sense of morality and the more dubious parts of society are explored based on

7383-466: The first plausible solution to Olbers' paradox . Poe eschewed the scientific method in Eureka and instead wrote from pure intuition . For this reason, he considered it a work of art, not science, but insisted that it was still true and considered it to be his career masterpiece. Even so, Eureka is full of scientific errors. In particular, Poe's suggestions ignored Newtonian principles regarding

7490-492: The forerunners of American science fiction , responding in his voluminous writing to such emerging literary trends as the explorations into the possibilities of hot air balloons as featured in such works as, " The Balloon-Hoax ". Much of Poe's work coincided with themes that readers of his day found appealing, though he often professed to abhor the tastes of the majority of the people who read for pleasure in his time. In his critical works, Poe investigated and wrote about many of

7597-427: The foster father finally disowning Poe. Poe then decided to leave West Point by intentionally getting court-martialed . On February 8, 1831, he was tried for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders for refusing to attend formations, classes, and church. Knowing he would be found guilty, Poe pleaded not guilty to the charges in order to induce dismissal. Poe left for New York in February 1831 and then released

7704-460: The genre was baptized with the term libri gialli or yellow books. The genre was outlawed by the Fascists during WWII , but exploded in popularity after the war, especially influenced by the American hard-boiled school of crime fiction. A group of mainstream Italian writers emerged, who used the detective format to create an antidetective or postmodern novel in which the detectives are imperfect,

7811-517: The genre. Many stories often begin when the crime has already occurred. Such fiction also tends to draw from the cultural aspects in which the work originated, whether from recent events or from a general consensus and viewpoints. The use of serial killers and unreliable narrators exists in a decent variety of crime fiction as well. The plot-puzzle formula, which was frequent in the Golden Age, makes use of potential hints and solutions to drive

7918-535: The highest mark of genius. In Poe's conception of the artist's life, the attainment of the concretization of beauty should be the ultimate goal. That which is unique is alone of value. Works with obvious meanings, he wrote, cease to be art. He believed that any work worthy of being praised should have as its focus a single specific effect. That which does not tend towards the effect is extraneous. In his view, every serious writer must carefully calculate each sentiment and idea in his or her work to ensure that it strengthens

8025-425: The history of crime fiction, some authors have been reluctant to publish their novels under their real names. More recently, some publish pseudonymously because of the belief that since the large booksellers are aware of their historical sales figures, and command a certain degree of influence over publishers, the only way to "break out" of their current advance numbers is to publish as someone with no track record. In

8132-474: The huge popularity of this genre. A precursor was Paul Féval , whose series Les Habits Noirs (1862–67) features Scotland Yard detectives and criminal conspiracies. The best-selling crime novel of the 19th century was Fergus Hume 's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), set in Melbourne, Australia. The evolution of the print mass media in the United Kingdom and the United States in the latter half of

8239-400: The imperfections in works other critics considered perfect, so as to hasten the evolution of literature, and in particular, American literature. A so-called “favorite target” of Poe's criticism was Boston's acclaimed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , who was defended by his friends, literary and otherwise, in what was later called, “The Longfellow War". Poe accused Longfellow of "the heresy of

8346-437: The larger bookshops and overseas booksellers. The British Library has also (since 2012) started republishing "lost" crime classics, with the collection referred to on their website as the "British Library Crime Classics series". Sometimes, older crime novels are revived by screenwriters and directors rather than publishing houses. In many such cases, publishers then follow suit and release a so-called "film tie-in" edition showing

8453-608: The late 1930s and 1940s, British County Court Judge Arthur Alexander Gordon Clark (1900–1958) published a number of detective novels under the alias Cyril Hare , in which he made use of his profoundly extensive knowledge of the English legal system. When he was still young and unknown, award-winning British novelist Julian Barnes (born 1946) published some crime novels under the alias Dan Kavanagh. Other authors take delight in cherishing their alter egos ; Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) wrote one sort of crime novels as Ruth Rendell and another type as Barbara Vine ; John Dickson Carr also used

8560-514: The monthly Strand in the United Kingdom. The series quickly attracted a wide and passionate following on both sides of the Atlantic, and when Doyle killed off Holmes in " The Final Problem ", the public outcry was so great, and the publishing offers for more stories so attractive, that he was reluctantly forced to resurrect him. In Italy, early translations of English and American stories and local works were published in cheap yellow covers, thus

8667-420: The mystery genre. Edgar Poe was born in Boston , Massachusetts , on January 19, 1809, the second child of American actor David Poe Jr. and English -born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe . He had an elder brother, Henry , and a younger sister, Rosalie . Their grandfather, David Poe, had emigrated from County Cavan , Ireland, around 1750. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died

8774-463: The nature of decomposition , the popular concerns of Poe's day about premature burial , the reanimation of the dead, are all at length explored in his more notable works. Many of his writings are generally considered to be part of the dark romanticism genre, which is said to be a literary reaction to transcendentalism , which Poe strongly criticized. He referred to followers of the transcendental movement, including Emerson, as "Frog-Pondians", after

8881-792: The next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore , Philadelphia , and New York City . In 1836, when he was 27, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm . She died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, he published his poem " The Raven " to instant success. He planned for years to produce his own journal The Penn , later renamed The Stylus . But before it began publishing, Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances . The cause of his death remains unknown and has been attributed to many causes, including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse , and suicide. Poe's works influenced

8988-467: The past, often confuse the source of their ideas with their original thoughts, but most of his contemporaries found that interpretation incomprehensible, and continued to be antagonistic towards Poe. On January 29, 1845, Poe's poem," The Raven ,” appeared in the Evening Mirror and quickly became a popular sensation. It made Poe a household name almost instantly, though at the time, he was paid only $ 9 (equivalent to $ 294 in 2023) for its publication. It

9095-574: The plot over in-depth character development. Dorothy L. Sayers contributed the Wimsey novels. Her work focused on the spectacle of crime deduction. She also displayed an exaggerated form of aristocratic society, straying from a more realistic story. Other novelists tapped into this setting, such as Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh ; Allingham, Christie, Marsh and Sayers are known as the Queens of Crime . Other British authors are G. K. Chesterton with

9202-441: The pond on Boston Common , and ridiculed their writings as "metaphor—run mad," lapsing into "obscurity for obscurity's sake" or "mysticism for mysticism's sake". However, Poe once wrote in a letter to Thomas Holley Chivers that he did not dislike transcendentalists, "only the pretenders and sophists among them". Beyond the horror stories he is most famous for, Poe also wrote a number of satires , humor tales, and hoaxes. He

9309-446: The pseudonym Carter Dickson . Author Evan Hunter (which itself was a pseudonym) wrote his crime fiction under the name of Ed McBain. As crime fiction has expanded, there have been many common tropes that emerge from this category of fiction. Such occurrences can appear in a variety of subgenres and media. While the format may vary across different forms of crime fiction, there are many elements that are generally consistent throughout

9416-453: The pseudosciences that were then popular with the majority of his fellow Americans. They included, but were not limited to, the fields of astrology, cosmology, phrenology , and physiognomy . Poe's writings often reflect the literary theories he introduced in his prolific critical works and expounded on in such essays as, " The Poetic Principle ". He disliked didacticism and imitation masquerading as influence, believing originality to be

9523-583: The rank of sergeant major for artillery, the highest rank that a non-commissioned officer could achieve. He then sought to end his five-year enlistment early. Poe revealed his real name and his actual circumstances to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Howard, who promised to allow Poe to be honorably discharged if he reconciled with Allan. Poe then wrote a letter to Allan, who was unsympathetic and spent several months ignoring Poe's pleas. Allan may not have written to Poe to inform him of his foster mother's illness. Frances Allan died on February 28, 1829. Poe visited

9630-434: The reputation of being a "tomahawk man". Poe's idea of criticism was not to praise prose or poetry that was obviously successful, and therefore could speak for itself, but to draw attention to what was not successful in the writings of even those he highly respected, his aim being to elevate the art of literature as a whole. Poe felt no need to praise what was already so obviously praiseworthy. Rather, he attempted to point out

9737-493: The rules that the work provides. Melville Davisson Post ’s Rudolph Mason: The Strange Schemes (1896) and Harper Lee ’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) are notable examples. Additionally, stories like Double Indemnity (1934) are based on cases from reality. Only a select few authors have achieved the status of "classics" for their published works. A classic is any text that can be received and accepted universally, because they transcend context. A popular, well-known example

9844-540: The story. Poe's success with cryptography relied not so much on his deep knowledge of that field (his method was limited to the simple substitution cryptogram ) as on his knowledge of the magazine and newspaper culture. His keen analytical abilities, which were so evident in his detective stories, allowed him to see that the general public was largely ignorant of the methods by which a simple substitution cryptogram can be solved, and he used this to his advantage. The sensation that Poe created with his cryptography stunts played

9951-503: The theme of the piece. Poe describes the method he employed while composing his most famous poem, “The Raven,” in an essay entitled " The Philosophy of Composition .” However, many of Poe's critics have questioned whether the method enunciated in the essay was formulated before the poem was written, or afterward, or, as T. S. Eliot is quoted as saying, "It is difficult for us to read that essay without reflecting that if Poe plotted out his poem with such calculation, he might have taken

10058-419: The tremendous success the magazine had achieved in the past year: "Perhaps the editors of no magazine, either in America or in Europe, ever sat down, at the close of a year, to contemplate the progress of their work with more satisfaction than we do now. Our success has been unexampled, almost incredible. We may assert without fear of contradiction that no periodical ever witnessed the same increase during so short

10165-455: The volumes received generally mixed reviews. In June 1840, Poe published a prospectus announcing his intentions to start his own journal called The Stylus , although he originally intended to call it The Penn , since it would have been based in Philadelphia. He bought advertising space for the prospectus in the June 6, 1840, issue of Philadelphia's Saturday Evening Post : "Prospectus of

10272-480: The works of Jules Verne , who wrote a sequel to Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket called An Antarctic Mystery , also known as The Sphinx of the Ice Fields . And as the author H. G. Wells noted, " Pym tells what a very intelligent mind could imagine about the south polar region a century ago". In 2013, The Guardian cited Pym as one of the greatest novels ever written in

10379-426: The world. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed.... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" The Mystery Writers of America have named their awards for excellence in the mystery genre "The Edgars ". Poe's work also influenced writings that would eventually come to be called "science fiction", notably

10486-399: Was a master of sarcasm. For comic effect, he often used irony and ludicrous extravagance in a deliberate attempt to liberate the reader from cultural and literary conformity. " Metzengerstein " is the first story that Poe is known to have published, and his first foray into horror, but it was originally intended as a burlesque satirizing the popular genres of Poe's time. Poe was also one of

10593-509: Was already damned)". The long obituary appeared in the New York Tribune , signed, “Ludwig" on the day Poe was buried in Baltimore . It was further published throughout the country. The obituary began, "Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it." "Ludwig" was soon identified as Griswold, an editor, critic, and anthologist who had borne

10700-719: Was concurrently published in The American Review: A Whig Journal under the pseudonym "Quarles". The Broadway Journal failed in 1846, and Poe then moved to a cottage in Fordham, New York , in the Bronx . That home, now known as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage , was relocated in later years to a park near the southeast corner of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road. Nearby, Poe befriended

10807-410: Was featured in several novels written by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee , serving as both a character and pen name. In such novels, clues may be analyzed by the protagonist in tandem with the viewer, generating the possibility of understanding the narrative before it is revealed in the book. Past the Golden Age, events such as the Great Depression and the transition between World Wars ushered in

10914-514: Was only 13. Poe was reinstated by White after promising to improve his behavior, and he returned to Richmond with Virginia and her mother. He remained at the Messenger until January 1837. During this period, Poe claimed that its circulation increased from 700 to 3,500. He published several poems, and many book reviews, critiques, essays, and articles, as well as a few stories in the paper. On May 16, 1836, he and Virginia were officially married at

11021-496: Was published and widely reviewed. In the summer of 1839, he became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine . He published numerous articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing the reputation he had established at the Messenger as one of America's foremost literary critics. Also in 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes, though Poe received little remuneration from it and

11128-419: Was published in 1860, while The Moonstone (1868) is often thought to be his masterpiece. French author Émile Gaboriau 's Monsieur Lecoq (1868) laid the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective. The evolution of locked-room mysteries was one of the landmarks in the history of crime fiction. The Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Doyle's are said to have been singularly responsible for

11235-418: Was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia . They never formally adopted him, but he lived with them well into young adulthood. Poe attended the University of Virginia , but left after only a year due to a lack of money. He frequently quarreled with John Allan over the funds needed to continue his education as well as his gambling debts. In 1827, having enlisted in the United States Army under

11342-520: Was the only full biography available and was widely reprinted, and in part because readers thrilled at the thought of reading works by an "evil" man. Letters that Griswold presented as proof were later revealed as forgeries . Poe's best-known fiction works have been labeled as Gothic horror, and adhere to that genre's general propensity to appeal to the public's taste for the terrifying or psychologically intimidating. His most recurrent themes seem to deal with death. The physical signs indicating death,

11449-420: Was wearing clothes that were not his own. He is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. His attending physician said that Poe's final words were, "Lord help my poor soul". All of the relevant medical records have been lost, including Poe's death certificate . Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of

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