Edgar Allan Poe, 1841–1844
“The Father of the Detective Story”
Credited by most detective literature historians as having written the first true detective short story (and many of the genre’s tropes), Poe gained editorial control of Graham’s Magazine in 1841 and with his newfound power created a new genre: the tale solely devoted to detective activity. In his essay “The Truth About Sherlock Holmes,” Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that “Poe’s masterful detective, M. Dupin . . . [was] from boyhood . . . one of my heroes.” Charles Dickens corresponded with Poe and met him in America. In his highly detailed book Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries, fellow Grolierite Richard Kopley writes, “we recognize that with [these] three tales Poe invented conventions that have lasted 165 years, shaping diverse subgenres of detective fiction, from the hard-boiled to the metaphysical.”
Edgar A[llan] Poe. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in Graham’s Magazine. Philadelphia: George R. Graham, April, 1841.
With a single story, “Poe set for all times one of the two lines on which the detective story has grown—an amateur investigator and his unimaginative narrator” (E. M. Wrong, 1926). Poe’s hero, Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, was influenced by French sources including Vidocq’s Memoires, which Poe likely read in the original French. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that “Dupin was, in fact, the literary model for Holmes” (A.E. Murch, 1958). Poe also created different stories around a single sleuth, a pattern still much in use.
Edgar Allan Poe. The Murders in the Rue Morgue, facsimile of the manuscript in the Drexel Institute. Philadelphia: George Barrie, [1895].
Not much more than fifty years past the initial publication of Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue, the importance of this work and, hence, the manuscript was apparent. Poe, in one story, created a new genre of literature.
Edgar A[llan] Poe. “The Mystery of Marie Roget” in The Ladies Companion. New York: William W. Snowden, 1843.
Poe was a detective fiction pioneer again with the first story based on facts, “a detailed reconstruction of an actual murder committed in New York in August, 1841” (A.E. Murch, 1958). Poe’s tale was subtly edited before its first book appearance in Tales in 1845. The original story, as published here, did not correctly predict the true murderer.
Edgar A[llan] Poe. “The Purloined Letter” in The Gift. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, [1844].
The third and final Poe story including the character of C. Auguste Dupin, “The Purloined Letter” is based on the truism that the obvious is often overlooked. An important missing letter, after much searching by others, is found by Dupin in a letter rack. This copy is from the collection of American bibliophile Robert R. Dearden.