Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe

By: J. W. Ocker

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Synopsis: Winner of the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical! Follow the footsteps of the father of American horror fiction. Edgar Allan Poe was an oddity: his life, literature, and legacy are all, well, odd. In Poe-Land, J. W. Ocker explores the physical aspects of Poe's legacy across the East Coast and beyond, touring Poe's homes, examining artifacts from his life--locks of his hair, pieces of his coffin, original manuscripts, his boyhood bed--and visiting the many memorials dedicated to him. Along the way, Ocker meets people from a range of backgrounds and professions--actors, museum managers, collectors, historians--who have dedicated some part of their lives to Poe and his legacy. Poe-Land is a unique travelogue of the afterlife of the poet who invented detective fiction, advanced the emerging genre of science fiction, and elevated the horror genre with a mastery over the macabre that is arguably still unrivaled today.