{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060923318?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0060923318","authors":["Kenneth Silverman"],"book_id":"9780060923310","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/edgar-a-poe-a-biography-9780060923310","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060923310.jpg?v=22bd217f390dd7b7","description":"“Vivid, absorbing, superbly handled, and completely riveting.” — Boston Globe “This biography of Edgar Allan Poe shows us how the mourning, melancholy, alcoholic literary innovator derived his uncanny tales and graveyard poetry from his chronic despair, and how he consoled himself by inventing the modern detective story. An engrossing literary biography.” — Leon Edel Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kenneth Silverman's authoritative biography of one of the greats of American literature, Edgar Allan Poe. Few writers have had such a profound, lasting impact as the incomparable Edgar Allan Poe. Though written more than two hundred years ago, his stories have lost none of their power to enchant, thrill, and terrify. Poe’s tales of mystery and death continue to work their eerie magic on readers of all stripes. Yet, for all the attention given to his work, many of the details of Poe’s life remain shrouded in obscurity. A man whose stories are familiar to all, Poe was a tortured soul who died a relatively young man under mysterious circumstances. In this fascinating biography, called “the best biography of Poe yet written,” by the Washington Post , Silverman illuminates the dark life of the beloved storyteller, going beyond the literary genius to the intimate details of Poe’s tormented life. Edgar A. Poe is the definitive account of the life of a true master.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780060923310","publication_date":"20081223","publisher":"HarperCollins","slug":"edgar-a-poe-a-biography","subtitle":"Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance","title":"Edgar A. Poe: a Biography"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"American Lit Crit","score":0.7248,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT024040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century Literary Criticism","score":0.7182,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004180","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Gothic & Romance Lit Crit","score":0.7169,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"American Lit Crit","score":0.7248,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT024040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century Literary Criticism","score":0.7182,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004180","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Gothic & Romance Lit Crit","score":0.7169,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO001000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Artists' Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cultural Heritage Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO006000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO007000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Writers' Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO026000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Personal Memoirs","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"high","label":"19th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LAN002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Writing as a Career","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LCO002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"American Literary Collections","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"American Lit Crit","score":0.7248,"slug":"american-lit-crit"},{"label":"19th-Century Literary Criticism","score":0.7182,"slug":"19th-century-literary-criticism"},{"label":"Gothic & Romance Lit Crit","score":0.7169,"slug":"gothic-romance-lit-crit"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in Edgar Allan Poe’s life and literary work"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Robert Morgan"],"book_id":"9780807180457","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807180457.jpg?v=b47e2dd54eac3452","score":0.7918,"title":"Fallen Angel","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807180457"},{"authors":["Edgar Allan Poe"],"book_id":"9789387779709","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9789387779709.jpg?v=ad295d8481b68dee","score":0.7733,"title":"Greatest Works of Edgar Allan Poe","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9789387779709"},{"authors":["Gareth Hinds"],"book_id":"9780763695095","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780763695095.jpg?v=847893eae5c3b618","score":0.7405,"title":"Poe: Stories and Poems","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780763695095"},{"authors":["Avi"],"book_id":"9780545630771","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780545630771.jpg?v=0bb21ae5089d7531","score":0.7013,"title":"The Man Who Was Poe","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780545630771"},{"authors":["Charles Brockden Brown"],"book_id":"9781625580269","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781625580269.jpg?v=1058a6863f444570","score":0.6578,"title":"Edgar Huntly, Or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781625580269"},{"authors":["Catherine Belsey"],"book_id":"9781474417365","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781474417365.jpg?v=3e669b6139f5d9ae","score":0.6555,"title":"Tales of the Troubled Dead","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781474417365"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:literary biography"],"label":"Biography","score":0.0744,"slug":"biography"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:american literature"],"label":"Literature","score":0.057,"slug":"literature"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:19th century"],"label":"Century","score":0.0323,"slug":"century"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:literary biography"],"label":"Literary","score":0.0312,"slug":"literary"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Edgar Allan Poe’s life, Literary creativity and despair, Mystery and death in Poe’s work.","Themes: Biography, Literature, Century.","Reading lane: American Lit Crit and 19th Century Literary Criticism."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.89,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in Edgar Allan Poe’s life and literary work"],"themes":["Edgar Allan Poe’s life","Literary creativity and despair","Mystery and death in Poe’s work"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":436,"goodreads_reviews_count":65,"quality_score":0.8942}}