The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket ~ Paperback ~ Edgar Allan Poe
"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," a classic gothic sea novel, is Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, viewed by many as his greatest work. Poe found the beginnings of this story in 1836, while reading a newspaper account in 1836 of a shipwreck and subsequent rescue of two men on board. Published in 1838, this rousing sea adventure follows a New England boy, Pym, who stows away on a whaling ship with its captain's son, Augustus. The two boys, who find themselves repeatedly on the brink of discovery or death, witness many hair-raising events, including mutiny, savagery, cannibalism, and frantic pursuits. It was Poe's unique genius, however, that he imbued the deliberately popular tale with such allegorical richness that discerning readers have been intrigued ever since and his literary successors have employed his motifs. With its rich use of biblical imagery and psychological insights, Poe's masterpiece has resonated throughout subsequent literary history, influencing major works by Melville, Verne, James, Nabokov, and others.Author BiographyEdgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian." Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845 Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today.