Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a pivotal work in which Poe calls attention to the act of writing and to the problem of representing the truth. It is an archetypal American story of escape from domesticity tracing a young man's rite of passage through a series of terrible brushes with death during a fateful sea voyage. Included are eight related tales which further illuminate Pym by their treatment...
Edgar Allan Poe died mysteriously on October 7, 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland, when he was only forty years old. Even so, he is considered one the most influential writers of all time and credited with the invention of several genres, including detective and crime fiction. Read on to learn more about him.