Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for the 2022 Edgar Award
Winner of the 2021 Quinn Award
An innovative biography of Edgar Allan Poe-highlighting his fascination and feuds with science.
Decade after decade, Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the most popular American writers. He is beloved around the world for his pioneering detective fiction, tales of horror, and haunting, atmospheric verse. But what if there was another side to the man who wrote -The Raven- and -The Fall of the House of Usher-?
In The Reason for the Darkness of the Night, John Tresch offers a bold new biography of a writer whose short, tortured life continues to fascinate. Shining a spotlight on an era when the lines separating entertainment, speculation, and scientific inquiry were blurred, Tresch reveals Poe-s obsession with science and lifelong ambition to advance and question human knowledge. Even as he composed dazzling works of fiction, h
