Category Archives: Dear Edgar

Dear Edgar 50 ~ Thou Art the Man

Without Poe’s Dupin there is no Sherlock Holmes, at least not in the form we are familiar with. Poe invented the Sherlock architype, but also the Doctor Watson type everyman who tells us the stories. Holmes and Watson in turn inspired Agatha Christie’s Poirot and inspector Japp among many others. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 49 ~ The Angel of the Odd

The game of darts, as we know it today was, as many such things are, invented in a British pub. The first ever darts tournament took place in 1926 in ‘The Red Lion’ in Wandsworth. In fairness, while that was … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 48 ~ The Oblong Box

In September 1841 John C Colt, the brother of renown gunsmith and industrialist Samuel, found himself in the unenviable position of being choked to death with his own cravat. In fairness to the elegant neck wear it was not responsible for the attempt on its wearers life, rather Samuel Adams, a printer of text books who had been employed by Colt, was using the cravat as an improvised garrote. This was over the matter of $1.35, an inconsiderable sum even in 1841 to motivate an attempted murder by neckwear, one would think. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 47 ~ Mesmeric Revelation

Poe, Newton and hypnotism Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 46 ~ The Premature Burial

In 1844, the second great cholera pandemic (1826 – 1837) had been over for seven years, fear of the disease had not lessoned and minor outbreaks had continued to occur. More importantly perhaps than the minor out breaks that the … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 45 ~ A Tale of the Ragged Mountains

Science Fiction is awash with tales of procession or bodily transference… This one by Poe, may have been the first Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 44 ~ The Spectacles

love at first myopic blur Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 43 ~ Diddling

‘Diddling’, or to give it it’s original title ‘Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences’ is by way of a humorous essay pretending to be an academic work, rather than a story. It is certainly a fun little read, as long as one accepts this central conceit. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 42 ~ The Black Cat

Pluto the cat was not named for Pluto the planet. Pluto the planet was not discovered until 1930 (though one suspects it was always there…) which was almost ninety years after this story was written. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 41 ~ The Gold Bug

To an extent then, this Poe story shorted the second world war and saved the lives of many allied soldiers… Which is almost enough to forgive its flaws… And certainly more than the DeVince code ever managed to do. Continue reading

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