Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Fortean Times

    The science behind Poe

    Sep 09, 2021 4 minutes

    The Reason for the Darkness of the Night

    Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science

    John Tresch

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2021

    Hb, 448pp, £21.20, ISBN 9780374247850

    This study, with its slightly cumbersome title, is structured as a biography of the writer Edgar Allan Poe, but with a strong emphasis on Poe’s interactions with the scientific revolutions that took place in America during his short life (1809-49).

    John Tresch is an historian of science at the Warburg Institute in London, so brings a detailed knowledge of the scientific and technical advances of the era into conjunction with the grotesqueries of Poe’s Gothic imagination. This

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Fortean Times

    Fortean Times1 min read
    THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA Forteantimes
    For anyone with a sense of adventure, an enquiring mind and a love of the weird and wonderful… Every month, ForteanTimes takes you on an incredible journey into the unknown where you’ll encounter some of the most fantastic phenomena on Earth… and som
    Fortean Times2 min read
    Mythconceptions
    Water conducts electricity. (That’s why you’re not allowed to use a corded power saw in a municipal swimming pool.) Forgive the pedantry, but water doesn’t conduct electricity – i.e. allow electricity to pass through it easily. On the contrary, water
    Fortean Times6 min read
    Strange Continent
    On 6 November 2023, a mysterious sailing boat beached on the Weststrand on the German East Frisian island of Norderney and caused quite a sensation. It looked like a prop from a Hollywood pirate movie – the self-built boat was certainly no normal aff

    Related Books & Audiobooks