Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Here is a sampling, the second volume in a reprint of a famous edition of the works of Poe, a driven, passionate, difficult, often desperate man -- "three-fifths of him genius," as Lowell said, and three fifths is more than most of the rest of us can claim or will ever have claimed for us. This volume includes "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Purloined Letter," "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," "William Wilson," and many others.

Author Biography

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) was an American writer, editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.