"Everything" Guide to Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most prolific American writers of all time. The genius son of itinerant actors who died young and left him an orphan, Poe suffered greatly - as much at his own hands as those of Fate. Yet tragedy never stopped him from writing: poems, short stories, literary journalism. He created an entire genre - the detective story - a contribution so great that the most prestigious writing award for crime fiction, given each year by the Mystery Writers of America, bears his name.Poe's unique storytelling makes him one of the most popular "literary writers"; he's the one author students don't need to be encouraged to read in literature classes the world over. His cult following continues to grow; today, there are thousands of literary societies, fan clubs and web sites devoted to him and his work. And he's captured the imagination of countless writers and filmmakers.Poe led a life as epic as one of his poems. In "The Everything Edgar Allan Poe Book", readers will learn all the deepest secrets that haunted this tortured writer - and ultimately drove him to an early death.

Veteran writer and professor Shelly Costa Bloomfield teaches writing and literature at the Cleveland Institute of Art. A noted scholar of suspense and mystery fiction, Dr. Bloomfield has also published several short stories in that genre herself. She earned her doctorate in English at Case Western Reserve University - with a dissertation called The Brief and Crowded Hour; Studies in Narrative Suspense in the Work of Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James. Dr. Costa lives in Ohio.