Best known as the author of imaginative short fiction, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, and as the author of hauntingly sonorous poems such as The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe was a leading practitioner of the American Gothic and helped popularize the short story as a genre. This reference work assembles in dictionary format a complete and current body of information on Poe's life and work. More than 1900 entries cover all phases of Poe's art and literary criticism, his family relationships, his numerous travels and residences, and the abundance of critical...

With its roots in Romanticism, antiquarianism, and the primacy of the imagination, the Gothic genre originated in the 18th century, flourished in the 19th, and continues to thrive today. This reference is designed to accommodate the critical and bibliographical needs of a broad spectrum of users, from scholars seeking critical assistance to general readers wanting an introduction to the Gothic, its abundant criticism, and the present state of Gothic Studies. The volume includes alphabetically arranged entries on more than 50 Gothic writers from Horace Walpole to Stephen King. Entries for...

"Through the Pale Door" is a bibliographical guide to the primary sources and central texts of American Gothic literature. It surveys and defines the Gothic achievements of approximately 200 American writers who were working in and were influenced by various modes of Gothicism from 1798 to 1982. The book collects, selects, identifies, and classifies all specimens of American Gothic literary activity from its initial expression at the end of the 18th century in the novels of Charles Brockden Brown, to the writings of the modern masters such as H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol...