Maya Corrigan
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
    • By Cook or by Crook
    • Scam Chowder
    • Final Fondue
    • The Tell-Tale Tarte
    • Smore Murders
    • Crypt Suzette
    • Book Club Topics
    • Stories, etc.
  • Mystery 101
    • Mystery Topics and Timeline
    • Detective Story Origins
    • Mystery Fashions
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Poe and Lincoln
    • Holmes and Dracula
    • Christie's Clues
    • Food and Murder
    • Agatha Christie Plays
    • Trivia >
      • Halloween Puzzle
      • Silver Screen Sleuths
      • Sleuthing Sweethearts
      • Christie Weapons
      • Poe and His Stories
      • Girl Mysteries
  • Food
    • Five-Ingredient Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
    • Gingerbread History
    • Story: Delicious Death
  • News/Contact
  • SmorgasBlog
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
    • By Cook or by Crook
    • Scam Chowder
    • Final Fondue
    • The Tell-Tale Tarte
    • Smore Murders
    • Crypt Suzette
    • Book Club Topics
    • Stories, etc.
  • Mystery 101
    • Mystery Topics and Timeline
    • Detective Story Origins
    • Mystery Fashions
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Poe and Lincoln
    • Holmes and Dracula
    • Christie's Clues
    • Food and Murder
    • Agatha Christie Plays
    • Trivia >
      • Halloween Puzzle
      • Silver Screen Sleuths
      • Sleuthing Sweethearts
      • Christie Weapons
      • Poe and His Stories
      • Girl Mysteries
  • Food
    • Five-Ingredient Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
    • Gingerbread History
    • Story: Delicious Death
  • News/Contact
  • SmorgasBlog

Edgar Allan Poe and the Detective Story


Edgar Allan Poe is revered as the father of the detective story. He pioneered the conventions that later writers would adopt.

​Poe's story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) features a brilliant private detective whose exploits are recorded by an admiring sidekick, murder victims discovered in a locked room, the arrest of the wrong person, and an ingenious solution. 

“The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1842), a fictional story inspired by a real crime, exemplifies "armchair detective" methods, as Poe's detective solves a murder by reading newspaper accounts of the crime. 

“The Purloined Letter” (1845) describes how the detective, consulted when police methods fail, finds the obvious but overlooked solution and uses trickery to foil the criminal. 

“Thou Art the Man” (1844) features a dogged amateur detective, a murder committed by the least likely person, clues planted to implicate an innocent person, and elementary ballistics to solve the crime. 
Image of a mock newspaper article headlined Poe invents a new genre
Illustration of Rue Morgue, Byam Shaw
Illustration of Poe's Rue Morgue, Byam Shaw
Poe never used the term “detective,” which first appeared in print in 1843, two years after “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was published. Poe called his detective stories “tales of ratiocination.” The emphasis on reason in these tales contrasts with the emotional focus of his Gothic stories centered on obsession, guilt, insanity, and death. 

Orphaned at an early age and cut off by the family that adopted him, Poe watched his young wife die of consumption, gave in to bouts of alcoholism, suffered delirium, and died under mysterious circumstances. Both his fiction and his life have inspired mystery writers.

Further Reading

  • Daniel Stashower, The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder, the background behind the real crime that inspired Poe’s story about Marie Roget
  • Harold Schechter, Tell-Tale Corpse, historical mystery with Poe as the sleuth
  • Matthew Pearl, The Poe Shadow, historical thriller about Poe’s death
  • William Hjortsberg, Nevermore, historical mystery about murders that resemble the deaths described in Poe’s stories
  • Michael Connelly, The Poet, a thriller about a murderer who uses quotes from Poe’s works 
  • Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye, historical mystery with Poe as a sleuth while a cadet at West Point 

Related Topic:  Detective Story Origins 

    Contact Me

Submit
Vertical Divider
© 2020 Mary Ann Corrigan
​
​Legal Fine Print: Unless otherwise noted, I have purchased the rights to images on this site, the owner has granted free use of them, or they are in the public domain, the United States copyright having expired.
Newsletter Signup 
​
Subscribe to my infrequent newsletter for contests, discounts, and book news. I give away a book each time I send a newsletter. You can always unsubscribe. ​​

powered by TinyLetter