GoKawiil
Tech News
University of Virginia professor Emily Ogden has published 'Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe,' a collection of essays blending memoir, biography and criticism. The book argues Poe's central theme is human suffering at its extreme, and traces his influence through non-American writers including Julio Cortázar, Marie Bonaparte and Charles Baudelaire.
A writer reflects on reading Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 short story 'The Gold-Bug' as a middle schooler in India, describing how it introduced them to cryptography through a tale of a buried pirate treasure decoded from symbols. The essay notes Poe wrote the story around 1840, submitted it to a Philadelphia newspaper contest, won $100, and had it published in 1843, making it likely the oldest fiction to feature cryptography.
A literary essay examines how Edgar Allan Poe's stories derive their terror not from the murders depicted but from the confessions that follow them, tracing this back to Poe's own career struggles as an editor at Graham's magazine in 1841 Philadelphia. It details Poe's financial precariousness as a writer, noting he earned little from his early books despite growing critical respect, and had to rely on magazine work to make a living.