It's just you, Edgar Allan and me

It's Edgar Allen Poe's 200th Birthday today (also, yes, I'm working with the BBC news coverage of the Obama Inauguration in the background...)

I have a definite fondness for Poe, both for the words on the page, and as a person.

I don't remember the details, but I do know I read a really interesting biography of him years ago, where I realised just how messed up he was. He makes for an excellent semi-fictional character in The Blackest Bird, but I think I'm glad I wasn't one of his editors in a past life!

I have not visited Poe's house in Phillidelphia, but on my birthday, several years ago, during my first visit to the USA, me and my dad hiked all over Philly to locate it, only to find it closed. Last year my dad gave me the most beautiful illustrated edition of The Raven, because he remembers that day as fondly as I do.

I think I will be sitting down this evening to re-read that edition.

It's just you, Edgar Allan and me

It's Edgar Allen Poe's 200th Birthday today (also, yes, I'm working with the BBC news coverage of the Obama Inauguration in the background...)

I have a definite fondness for Poe, both for the words on the page, and as a person.

I don't remember the details, but I do know I read a really interesting biography of him years ago, where I realised just how messed up he was. He makes for an excellent semi-fictional character in The Blackest Bird, but I think I'm glad I wasn't one of his editors in a past life!

I have not visited Poe's house in Phillidelphia, but on my birthday, several years ago, during my first visit to the USA, me and my dad hiked all over Philly to locate it, only to find it closed. Last year my dad gave me the most beautiful illustrated edition of The Raven, because he remembers that day as fondly as I do.

I think I will be sitting down this evening to re-read that edition.