Acclaimed as one of America's most innovative authors and the inventor of the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe and his works are celebrated around the world. Yet the true story of Poe's time in Richmond, Virginia, is every bit as strange and exciting as his fiction. Poe spent nearly a third of his life in Richmond. It was here that he matched wits with a chess-playing robot, set the record for swimming against the current in the James River, challenged a rival editor to a duel and first revealed his talent for practical jokes. Join Christopher P. Semtner, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, as he reveals previously unpublished photographs and little-known source material to shed new light on how the mystery, madness and tragedy that Poe encountered during his Richmond years forever shaped his renowned fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe, the renowned author of tales of mystery and madness, arrived in Richmond in 1810 at the age of one and left the city for the last time just two weeks before his death. Of his 40 years, he lived in Richmond for 13 years--far longer than in any other city. While other cities may claim him, Poe himself boasted in 1841, "I am a Virginian . . . for I have resided all my life, until within the last few years, in Richmond." It was in Richmond that Poe was orphaned at the age of two and where he was reared in the home of the tobacco exporter John Allan. In this city, the young Poe first fell in love, wrote his earliest poetry, began his career in journalism, and married his 13- year-old cousin.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote his great works while living in several cities on the East Coast of the United States, but Baltimore's claim to him is special. His ancestors settled in the burgeoning town on the Chesapeake during the 18th century, and it was in Baltimore that he found refuge when his foster family in Virginia shut him out. Most importantly, it was here that he was first paid for his literary work. If Baltimore discovered Poe, it also has the inglorious honor of being the place that destroyed him. On October 7, 1849, he died in this city, then known as "Mob Town." Edgar Allan Poe's Baltimore is the first book to explore the poet's life in this port city and in the quaint little house on Amity Street, where he once wrote.

Recounts the mysterious history of Edgar Allan Poe's life, work, and the museum preserving his artifacts, founded by devoted but troubled collectors. Although he is one of the world's most popular authors who continues to thrill and chill readers of all ages, Edgar Allan Poe's life is as enigmatic as his sudden, unexplained death. In a quest for solutions to the mysteries surrounding the poet's life and work, a group of Poe devotees founded the Poe Shrine in 1922. This body included the world's most prolific Poe collector, a psychiatrist who believed Poe was clairvoyant, and the grandson of Poe's worst enemy. Within four years of the Shrine's opening, one of the founders had committed suicide, another was committed to a mental hospital, and a third had been banned from ever entering the Shrine again. Somehow, over the course of 95 years, their museum has managed to assemble to world's finest collection of Poe artifacts and memorabilia featuring the author's boyhood bed, clothing, walking stick, and hair clipped from his head after his death. Drawing on the museum's archives, The Poe Shrine tells the story of these coveted objects, the people who collected them, and the institution that serves as their repository.

Edgar Allan Poe has had a busy afterlife. The author of "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" might have died back in 1849, but some claim that did not stop him from composing poetry for another four decades. Others say he still makes appearances in no fewer than five cities, and that his ghost is a regular at a couple of different taverns, one of which saves a seat for him. Like a character from one of his short stories, Poe refuses to stay buried. Author Christopher Semtner explores the ghost stories and hauntings associated with his life--from the supernatural legends that inspired his writing to the alleged paranormal activity inspired by those terror tales.

»King Pest« is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, originally published in 1835. EDGAR ALLAN POE was born in Boston in 1809. After brief stints in academia and the military, he began working as a literary critic and author. He made his debut with the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket in 1838, but it was in his short stories that Poe's peculiar style truly flourished. He died in Baltimore in 1849.

Perhaps fitting for a horror short story, the devil is in the details in Poe’s "The Oval Portrait" (1842). A benighted traveller finds shelter in an abandoned mansion in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Inside he gets absorbed by a stunning painting and decides to delve into its origins with the help from a book he finds on a pillow. The story revolves around the complex and often tragic relationship between life and art. As per usual Poe can’t help himself to play with layers, and most of the story is told as an embedded narrative. The intense emotional and psychological depths of the narrator’s infatuation with the portrait and the enticing volume that helps to shed a light on the painting make this short story another fascinating and haunting and Poesque tale which succinctly glorifies the immortality of art. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, author, and literary critic. Most famous for his poetry, short stories, and tales of the supernatural, mysterious, and macabre, he is also regarded as the inventor of the detective genre and a contributor to the emergence of science fiction, dark romanticism, and weird fiction. His most famous works include "The Raven" (1945), "The Black Cat" (1943), and "The Gold-Bug" (1843).

On the surface, "The Domain of Arnheim" is a tale of a fantastically wealthy man called "Ellison" who desires to express "the true character, the august aims, the supreme majesty and dignity of the poetic sentiment". He achieves his goal through creating "Arnheim", a castle and landscape-garden of supreme loveliness. As Ellison says, man can't affect the "general condition of man", but must be "thrown back...upon self". The first half of the story is a discussion of Ellison's philosophies concerning man and nature, and the second a detailed description of Arnheim itself. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American author, editor, poet, and critic. Most famous for his stories of mystery and horror, he was one of the first American short story writers, and is widely considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Many antiquarian books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.