A Dream Within a Dream

Edgar Allan Poe is still regarded as one of the most divisive and enigmatic characters in American literature 160 years after his passing. The genre pioneer has drawn praise for his brilliance and scorn for being a mentally unstable alcoholic frequently in the same sentence. Biographers have paid the genre pioneer a fair lot of unkind attention. This painstakingly researched narrative adopts a much more sympathetic stance drawing on public records earlier biographies a lengthy list of rare magazines and an outstanding catalogue of correspondence between Poe and several family members and acquaintances.