The first great American writer, Edgar Allan Poe, was born Jan 19, 1809 and died from causes never clarified, but almost certainly involving a crime, in 1849…
Poe professionalized the writing business in America, or at least died trying. Along the way he casually invented the detective story (tales of ratiocination), pioneered American science-fiction, and proved that terror is ‘not of Germany but of the soul’…
“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.” ― Edgar Allan Poe, “Eleonora”
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