Despite being known as the father of the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe only had one bestseller during his lifetime – a textbook on seashells. Poe’s financial problems plagued him throughout his life, but he loved cats and received his middle name from the couple who took him in after his parents’ deaths.
Edgar Allan Poe is known as the father of the detective story, but there’s a mystery that even he couldn’t solve: why didn’t people buy his books?
Today, nearly a century since Poe was in his prime, readers of all ages love his work, from poems like “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” to short stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Murders in the Rue”. morgue.”
However, during his lifetime, Poe had only one bestseller… The first book of the Conchologist.
Not only was it a textbook on seashells, but it was actually an abridged version of an earlier book by Thomas Wyatt. Wyatt came to Poe for review because Poe had a recognizable name and was willing to work for a minimal fee. But Wyatt forgot to tell Poe to stay away from his “sad at midnight” kind of writing and stick to a strictly academic approach.
The final volume came with revisions by Poe and a foreword which according to Poe biographer Jeffrey Meyers would “haunt and discourage even the most passionate schoolboy.” To everyone’s surprise, the book sold out in two months and became the biggest success of Poe’s career… not counting his posthumous fame, of course.
A profile of Poe:
Financial problems plagued Poe throughout his life. He was so in debt that he had to drop out of the University of Virginia after just one year.
Poe loved cats, and one, named Catterina, is said to have sat on his shoulders as he wrote.
Poe received the middle name “Allan” from the couple who took him in at the age of 3 after his parents’ deaths.
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