welcome biography quotes summaries stories poetry forum gallery timeline wordlist guestbook bookstore links credits contact

News

General information posted by Robert Giordano

Added the poem, Eldorado. Thanks to Emma for the suggestion.

Everyone should read Manuscript Found in a Bottle. Poe won a contest for it in 1835.

Edgar Allan Poe was born 199 years ago today. Happy Birthday Edgar!

I've upgraded the Photo Gallery and added new pictures! Take a look!! The Guestbook and Forum have also been updated.

New Story Added!!
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. It's really quite creepy! Go check it out.

The forum and guestbook have been updated! I'm thinking of updating the forum software. Would anyone like to be a forum moderator? Contact me.

Want an Edgar Allan Poe book, t-shirt, or CD? Check out the NEW bookstore!

The guestbook has just been updated. I just returned from a road trip to the Poe House in Baltimore and the Poe Cottage in New York City. Photos coming soon!

New Story Added!!
Poe wrote a little comedy called The Spectacles and I've just added it to the site. Check it out!

Also, more words and phrases were added to the wordlist for a total of 560.

Some minor corrections were made to The Raven in order to match Poe's original text. Many versions of this poem have been printed and a few of these errors appear in the first books published after Poe's death. See also Versions of The Raven

January 19 is Edgar Allan Poe's birthday! Did the Poe Toaster visit Poe's grave this year? Contact me if you have any info and I'll post it here!

Check out the cool new Visitor Map that shows which areas of the world have the most Edgar Allan Poe fans.

Edgar Allan Poe died today in 1849. He was 40 years old. How he died is still a mystery.

PoeStories.com celebrates its first year of existence!!

In June 2005, I began building Poestories.com as a personal project. The site gives people of all ages the opportunity to learn about one of America's greatest authors, Edgar Allan Poe. Since then, over 100,000 unique visitors have stopped by to read The Raven or one of Poe's many other works. Thanks to everyone who has signed the Guestbook. I'll be adding more of Edgar Poe's works to the site in the next couple of months.

In school, everyone usually reads the same stories by Poe. Why not read one of his lesser known tales, like The Oval Portrait or Some Words with a Mummy? Also, the guestbook entries have been updated. Take a look.

Which Edgar Allan Poe story is your favorite? Tell us about it in the new forum topic.

Looking for a book of Poe's tales and poems? Visit the new bookstore for some great deals.

My CSS Zengarden entry, "Edgar Allan Poe", has just been added to the list of accepted designs. While my stylesheet wasn't picked as an "official design", I'm still honored to be a part of Dave Shea's project.

User comments have been ENABLED on the Discussion pages! Please contribute your opinions. If anyone wishes to start a new topic, please contact me. Finally, the dead link to Mesmeric Revelation has been fixed. This is a very interesting tale and is the subject of a discussion topic.

Today is Edgar Allan Poe's birthday! Everyone should read The Raven to a friend who has not heard it before. Did anyone see the Poe Toaster this year at Poe's grave? Contact me if you did!

It's Friday the 13th! Don't forget Poe's birthday is coming up on the 19th of January!

Added two new galleries with photos from my road trip to the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia and Poe's Grave and House in Baltimore, Maryland.

There are now over 500 words in the wordlist! At some point I may have to split it up into pages, by letter. There are a couple of new items in the links page and it now shows the date it was last updated. I also made a couple of improvements to the guestbook.

Added The Balloon Hoax, a newspaper article Poe wrote claiming that a group of men had just crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. The story was fictional but many were fooled and believed it was true.

Added Hop-Frog, a great little story about a crippled midget who seeks revenge on those who make fun of him. As usual, vocabulary words in this story were added to the wordlist.

Once again, I've expanded the wordlist to a total of 472 words! Here are a just few from The Purloined Letter:

- axiom
- acumen
- doggerel
- dogma
- ennui
- escritoire
- expedient
- hyperobtrusive
- juxtaposition
- recherche
- trumpery

Just for fun, go look at the definition for "doggerel" and the note that follows it.

The wordlist has been updated and now contains 380 words. I'd like to thank everyone who has linked to my site and has signed the guestbook. It shows how many people today still honor Poe. I'll be adding more content and working on the discussion forum in coming weeks.

In 1875, famous French Painter, Edouard Manet did a few illustrations for a French translation of The Raven. You can view these images in a new section of the Gallery.

Added "For Annie", Poe's poem to one of his few close friends. More to come.

The wordlist now has 359 words. Also, I added a couple of historical items to the timeline and I've added a learning resource section to the links page.

Added "Some Words with a Mummy which reads like a Twilight Zone episode. The wordlist now has 331 words, and my short Poe biography is finished. I actually have a bit of paying work to do so it might be a fortnight before I return to this site.

The wordlist is up to 283 words, I added a couple of events to the timeline, and I've been trying to promote the site.

Added "The Masque of the Red Death". There are now 262 words in the wordlist. More to come...

I've added a few poems and another story. There are now 194 words in the wordlist.

For some twisted humor, read "Never Bet the Devil Your Head". =)

Added "The Black Cat" and The Cask of Amontillado". Also, the wordlist is now up to 155 words.

Today I tested the site on a friend's Treo 650 and it worked perfectly.

At the request of a visitor, I've added a link to print each story or poem. When the link is clicked, a new window opens with only the text of the story on a white background, properly formatted for the width of a sheet of paper.

Added "The Angel of the Odd", a really funny story about being drunk. Also, there are 95 words in the wordlist so far.

The site is now functional on mobile devices like phones. Depending on the phone, you may or may not be able to download the longer stories. I was having a Frappuccino in Starbucks today and I pulled up "The Raven" on my Sanyo 8100 phone in about 10 seconds. =)

The wordlist utility is working now. All I have to do is add words to the database and they become links anywhere they appear in each story or poem. I've tested it with "The Raven". Go take a look!!

I also added tooltips to the thumbnails in the image galleries.

OFFICIAL LAUNCH !!!
The site was officially launched today. There are still a couple of items that need to be finished, like the timeline and the wordlist. Also, more stories, summaries, and images will be added during the coming weeks. Finally, I'm planning a solo road trip to Poe's grave in the fall.

If anyone would like to see something added to the site, please let me know.

The site is almost ready to launch. The contact and credits pages are done and I've added a couple more stories. There is still some work to be done but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... or the headlight of an oncoming train. Fun times either way.

The Guestbook is working! The site isn't open to the public yet but for those of you who are reading this, please sign in. The biography is about halfway done, I've added a few more stories, and I'm still figuring out the code for the wordlist utility. Oh, and I posted the first 2 topics in the Discussion section. Go read them! Unfortunately, you can't post comments yet... doh!

I've added most of my favorite quotes and a few more stories to the database. I'm still working on the wordlist feature. It will allow me to create a list of words that will automatically be hyperlinked wherever they appear in any story. It's almost time for the public launch...

Most of the scripts have been written and now I'm using my content manager to add the stories and summaries. So far, I've added 5 stories. I still have to build the gallery, timeline, and guestbook pages. I've also added some content to the quotes page.

The layout of the site is basically finished. The welcome page is done for now but the links don't work yet. This is a completely database driven site so now I need to start adding all of the text files and summaries.

I'm working on the last few details of the menu and layout. After that's done, I'll start coding the php pages and various scripts necessary to read in the text files of Poe's works.