On a Raven's Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe PDF
Preview On a Raven's Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe
On a Raven’s Wing NEW TALES IN HONOR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE BY MARY HIGGINS CLARK, THOMAS H. COOK, JAMES W. HALL, RUPERT HOLMES, S. J. ROZAN, DON WINSLOW, AND FOURTEEN OTHERS Edited by Stuart M. Kaminsky Contents About Edgar Allan Poe v About the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award ix Introduction Stuart M. Kaminsky xi Israfel Doug Allyn 1 The Golden Bug Michael A. Black 17 William Allan Wilson Jon L. Breen 47 The Tell-Tale Purr Mary Higgins Clark 69 Nevermore Thomas H. Cook 81 Emily’s Time Dorothy Salisbury Davis 105 The Cask of Castle Island Brendan DuBois 121 Bells James W. Hall 143 In My Ancestor’s Image Jeremiah Healy 165 The Poe Collector Edward D. Hoch 183 A Nomad of the Night Rupert Holmes 201 Rattle, Rattle, Rattle Stuart M. Kaminsky 227 Development Hell Paul Levine 245 The Deadliest Tale of All Peter Lovesey 255 — ii i — Contents Poe, Poe, Poe John Lutz 271 The Tell-Tale Pacemaker P. J. Parrish 289 Seeing the Moon S. J. Rozan 303 Challenger Daniel Stashower 329 Poe, Jo, and I Don Winslow 343 Rue Morgue Noir Angela Zeman 353 About the Editor Other Books by Stuart M. Kaminsky Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher — i v — About Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), while a mainstay of literature today and the recognized creator of the modern genres of horror and mystery fiction, spent much of his life chasing the public and literary acclaim he craved. Born to David and Elizabeth Poe, young Edgar knew hard- ship from an early age. His father abandoned the family a year after Edgar’s birth, and his mother died of consumption one year later. Taken in, but never legally adopted, by John and Frances Allan, Edgar traveled with his new family to England in 1815, then continued on alone to study in Irvine, Scotland, for a short time. Afterward he studied in Chelsea, then a suburb of Lon- don, until 1817. He returned to Virginia in 1820, and in 1826 he enrolled at the newly founded University of Virginia to study languages. During his college years, he became estranged from his foster father, claiming that John Allan didn’t send him enough money to live on, but the reality was that Poe was losing the money gambling. In 1827 Edgar enlisted in the U.S. Army at age eighteen, claiming he was twenty-two years old. It was during this time — v— About Edgar Allan Poe that he began publishing his poems, including an early collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, printed under the byline “A Bostonian.” He attained the rank of sergeant major of artillery and expressed a desire to attend West Point for officer training. Once accepted to the academy, however, he was dismissed for not attending classes and formations. After the death of his brother, Henry, in 1831, Edgar decided to try making a living as an author. He was the first well-known American to make such an attempt, but because of the lack of an international copyright law and the economic effects of the Panic of 1837, he was often forced to press for the monies owed him and compelled to seek other assistance. After winning a literary prize for his story “Manuscript Found in a Bottle,” he was hired as the assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, but he was fired several weeks later for repeated drunkenness. This pattern of dis- sipation would haunt Poe for the rest of his life. After marrying his cousin Virginia Clemm in 1835, Poe re- turned to the Messenger, where he worked for the next two years, seeing its circulation rise from 700 to 3,500 copies. His only full-length novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, was published in 1838 to wide review and acclaim, though once again Poe received little profit from his work. The year after saw the publication of his first short story collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, which received mixed reviews and sold poorly. He left the Messenger and worked at Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine before announcing that he would start his own literary publication, The Penn, later to be titled The Stylus. Tragically, it never came to print. — vi — About Edgar Allan Poe Virginia first showed signs of tuberculosis in 1842, and her gradual decline over the next five years caused Edgar to drink even more heavily. The one bright spot in this time was the publication in 1845 of one of his most famous works, “The Raven,” which brought him widespread acclaim; unfortunately, he was paid only nine dollars for the poem itself. Shortly afterward, the Poes moved to a cottage in the Fordham section of the Bronx, New York, where Virginia died in 1847. Increasingly unstable, Edgar tried to secure a position in govern- ment, unsuccessfully courted the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, and eventually returned to Richmond, Virginia, to rekindle a relation- ship with Sarah Royster, a childhood sweetheart. The circumstances surrounding Poe’s death remain shrouded in mystery. Found on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, delirious and dressed in clothes that weren’t his, Poe was taken to Washing- ton College Hospital, where he died on October 7, 1849. It was re- ported that his last words were “Lord help my poor soul,” but this cannot be proven as all records surrounding his death have been lost. Edgar Allan Poe’s death has been attributed to various causes, including delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, or meningeal inflammation. He was buried in a Baltimore cemetery, where since 1949 a mysterious figure has toasted Poe on the anniversary of his birth by leaving cognac and three roses at his headstone. Poe was recognized primarily as a literary critic during his lifetime, but after his death, his work became popular in Europe owing mainly to Charles Baudelaire’s translations of his stories and poems. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle cited Poe as the creator of the modern mystery story with his C. Auguste Dupin stories, — vii — About Edgar Allan Poe saying, “Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?” Poe’s work also inspired later authors of science fiction and fantasy, including Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Today he is recognized as a literary master, who both created new genres and reinvigorated old ones with a unique combination of story and style. — viii — About the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award In 1945, when the Mystery Writers of America was being formed, the founders of the organization decided to give an award for the best debut American mystery novel, as well as awards for the best and worst mystery reviews of the year. Initially they were going to call it the Edmund Wilson Memorial Award (partly in revenge for Wilson’s disdain for the genre), but calmer heads prevailed. Although it is unknown exactly who came up with the idea of naming the award for “the Father of the Detective Story,” it was an immediate success, and the “Edgar” was created. The first Edgar Award was bestowed in 1946 on Julian Fast for his debut novel Watchful at Night. In the more than fifty years since, the stylized ceramic bust of the great author has become one of the top prizes in the field of mystery fiction. The award cat- egories have been expanded over time to include Best Novel, Best Short Story, Best Paperback Original, Best Young Adult Novel, Best Juvenile Novel, Best Fact Crime, Best Critical/Biographical, Best Play, Best Television Episode, and Best Motion Picture, in addition to the original Best First Novel. The Edgar has been won — i x —
The list of books you might like
