Book Summary and Reviews of Poe-Land by J. W. Ocker

Poe-Land by J. W. Ocker

Poe-Land

The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe

by J. W. Ocker

  • Published:
  • Oct 2014, 384 pages
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Book Summary

Follow the footsteps of the father of American horror fiction!

Edgar Allan Poe was an oddity. His life was odd, his literature is odd, his legacy is odd. Actually, his legacy is the oddest part about him. In Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe, J. W. Ocker explores Poe's strange physical legacy along the East Coast and across the ocean by touring Poe's homes, examining artifacts from his life--locks of his hair, pieces of his coffin, original manuscripts, the bed where his wife died--and traveling to the many memorials dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe.

Along the way, Ocker meets Poe fans from a range of backgrounds and professions--actors, museum managers, collectors, writers, professors, businessmen, sculptors, historians--who have dedicated some part of their lives to Poe and his legacy. Poe-Land is a unique travel diary that follows the afterlife of the poet, author, and critic who invented detective fiction, advanced the emerging genre of science fiction, and elevated the horror genre.

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Book Awards

  • award image Edgar Awards, 2015

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This information about Poe-Land was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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J.W. Ocker is the creator of OTIS: Odd Things I've Seen (Oddthingsiveseen.com), where he writes about his visits to oddities of nature, history, art, and culture. His first two books, The New England Grimpendium and The New York Grimpendium are personal travelogues of his visits to deathly sites in those regions. Both won Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers. His latest book, "Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe" is a travel diary of his time trekking to Poe sites along the East Coast and across the ocean and meeting the people responsible for maintaining Poe's physical legacy. It won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical.

His work has appeared in Rue Morgue Magazine, The Boston Globe, CNN, The Atlantic, and other places people stick writing. He's from Maryland, but has lived in New Hampshire since 2008.

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