
"Vivid, absorbing, superbly handled, and completely riveting." --Boston Globe "This biography of Edgar Allan Poe shows us how the mourning, melancholy, alcoholic literary innovator derived his uncanny tales and graveyard poetry...

Silverman offers a definitive look at the turbulent, controversial, and colorful life of Edgar Allan Poe--the inventor of the mystery and horror genres of fiction--from his troubled beginnings as an adopted child in Virginia to his career as a journalist, editor, and writer...

From a Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer, the most revealing, fascinating, and important biography of one of our greatest literary figures.


