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Best Biographies » New Biography

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch
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The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science

by John Tresch

✩ Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for biography

✩ Nominated for the Edgar Award for best work of criticism or biography

 

John Tresch, a professor of history of art and science at the Warburg Institute, situates the iconic American author in an era “when the lines separating entertainment, speculation and scientific inquiry were blurred.” The troubled horror writer embraced contradiction, exposing the hoaxes of contemporary scientific fraudsters even as he perpetuated his own.

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