Edgar Allan Poe and Abraham Lincoln
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Edgar Allen Poe, inventor of the detective story, and Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, were born within a month of each other in 1809.
According to Lincoln biographer Michael Burlingame, the president liked Poe’s short stories. Both men met tragic ends: Poe found dead under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore, Lincoln assassinated in Washington. Poe's story, "The Mystery of Marie Roget," was based on a real crime. Lincoln also wrote a true-crime story for publication. |
Lincoln, Mystery Writer
In 1846 the Quincy Whig published "A Remarkable Case of Arrest for Murder," described as a "murder mystery by Abraham Lincoln." In the mid-1800s, lawyers commonly wrote fictionalized versions of their cases. These true-crime tales were popular with the reading public. Lincoln based his story on an 1841 case, in which he defended the Trailor brothers. In that same year, Poe wrote about a baffling fictional case, "Murders in the Rue Morgue," considered the first modern detective story.
Lincoln's story was reprinted in the March 1952 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as “The Trailor Murder Mystery.” You can read the story at the University of Michigan Digital Library site.
Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849
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Read more about the mysterious Edgar Allan Poe
Poe and the invention of the detective story Parallels between Poe and Jane Austen Trivia about Poe's stories The Tell-Tale Tarte: A Poe-inspired mystery |