Tag: Edgar Allan Poe
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Notes on Notes on Poe
From Literary Kicks, here’s a fascinating article written by Michelle Glauser about notes found in a book about Edgar Allan Poe. Glauser begins: Have you ever found something in an old book that took you by surprise? It’s not unusual to find a name or maybe even a phone number. Sometimes you’ll find evidence that…
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Locked Room Mysteries
One of my goals is to write a good “locked room” mystery with an original solution. You know, a murder that takes place under seemingly impossible conditions. I refuse to believe all the ideas have been used up. In the meantime, here is a mammoth 7 part review of a locked room anthology that appears…
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uNcAnNy
The word “uncanny” is often used interchangeably with words like “eerie” and “weird.” After Boris Karloff portrayed the Frankenstein monster in the classic 1931 movie, he was sometimes billed as “Karloff the Uncanny.” I recently decided to look up the actual definition of uncanny and discovered a treasure trove of cool information, including some psychology from…
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Old, Dark Houses
“The Oaks” mansion in The Bat (1959, Liberty Pictures), one of several movies based on the book and play of the same name by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Click on the mansion, if you dare. Click on the picture From the PBS web site, Masterpiece Mystery Casebook Index, here’s Ron Miller on that classic staple of mystery fiction,…
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Creepy Cut-Up, sort of
Astral Weeks columnist Ed Park finds that horror story quotes take on a life of their own (via the Los Angeles Times). While assembling my notes for a review of the Library of America anthology “American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny” (Library of America, two volumes, edited by Peter Straub: “From Poe to the…
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I Declare Cooping Day
Cooping Day is almost here! As if literary folks needed another excuse to get drunk and wear each other’s clothes, I propose that Election Day, November 4, be declared “Cooping Day” in memory of Edgar Allan Poe’s demise. According to The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, the majority of biographers give the following theory…