Today is the birthday of my favorite author, Edgar Allan Poe. I first became interested in his works while taking a Poe and Twain class in high school. I had always heard of The Raven, but at the time, I wasn't familiar with his short stories. I suppose it's the mystery lover in me that resulted in me becoming a fan.One of the things I remember from my high school class was the English teacher bringing a Alan Parsons Project album (yes, those black vinyl discs) to class that were songs about some of Poe's works. I thought that was so cool. I'm still trying to find that album. My favorite was The Fall of the House of Usher, both on the album and the short story. I still love watching the Vincent Price movie of the same name.
I also remember when in college, taking every literature class the school had to offer, my fellow students always gave me an odd look when I would tell them Poe was my favorite author. I always wondered if they were a little afraid of me because of that.
A annual tradition started on his birthday in 1949 was when a mystery visitor would leave roses and a half-full bottle of cognac on his grave. Even with people trying to watch the grave, the mystery visitor was always able to leave his gifts undetected. For the second year in a row, the visitor failed to appear this year, causing speculation about why. CNN has put up a blog post about it here.
I think I need to go check and see if there is a Kindle download I can get of Poe's works. Now, that would be cool to have. Happy birthday, Edgar.
Don't forget, there's still a little time left to vote for me and my novel in the Preditors & Editors Readers' Poll. See my post below for details. Thanks.
Carol
Literature.org has a few of his stories for free. Not sure you can download them onto a Kindle but you can read them. There may be free copies for the Kindle somewhere out there since the copywright is long gone. Poe is one of my favorites - he had such a way of looking at the world.
ReplyDelete