But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow." Poe's death, on the morning of Sunday, October 7, 1849, must have seemed as awesome and inscrutable as the death he had long imagined.
When Poe died, many of his contemporaries believed that his death was of a piece with his life and his stories, for Poe had lived a life of remarkable tumult while creating stories that chronicled the bizarre twists and turns of the human subconscious. Though Poe's stories told of madness, Poe is now recognized as a genius who reinvented the Gothic tale of mystery and horror for his age. In stories like "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "Ligeia," Poe placed the reader inside the tortured minds and lives of people confronting the supernatural.
Yet Poe was more than a writer of horror stories. Midway through his career, Poe literally invented the modern detective story.
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