Pretty sure I'm no Hemingway or Poe. However I spent a season being terrorized by Poe. In either 7th or 8th grade we had a section where we had to read Poe.
Yeah. I was NOT ready for what he was dishing. I don't remember if we had to read all that I did or if I fell under the magic spell of horror and death and just felt compelled...anyhoo. I read most of his works.
You know an author is amazing at what he or she does when you remember details even years later. Poe was gifted in his ability to etch his thoughts onto my previously empty neural highway.
I certainly am not surprised by the outcome of his life. Whew. Basements have forever been changed for me. Storage? Ha that's for lightweights! The proper use of a good basement is a grave.
I was in track star shape that year though. Our basement stairs were open slats and our basement had plenty of places to hide the dead, the undead, or merely those intent on being involved in those possibilities. I could run up those 20 something steps in seconds. Of course the heart beating in my ears didn't help the anxiety level.
