I can not recall the first short story I read by Edgar Allan Poe but I do recall studying some of his works in school - probably around the 9th or 10th grade. (Tenth grade was American Lit so maybe then.) I remember "The Raven" which never really made sense but was creepy and "Annabel Lee" which conjured up images of a dead girl and the doomed party story, "The Masque of the Red Death" which has been remade in many ways over the years. (I always thought that the party at the hotel in The Shining was a good take on it.) As for "The Fall of the House of Usher" all I have there in my memory are the movies which always showed late at night and made a room full of teenagers scream at the right moments.

So did I know Poe? Well - kinda. I knew enough to answer questions in Trivial Pursuit anyway but otherwise, not really. Part of why I wanted to read the new Ellen Datlow edited anthology, Poe, was to see what he meant to a lot of authors and hopefully gain some better perspective on him and his writings. Based on the list of contributors (M. Rickert, Sharyn McCrumb, Delia Sherman) I fully expected to just enjoy some of these stories on their own, separate from their Poe inspiration. I hoped for a lot more though; I hoped to get some sense of the man who created so much literature of mystery and horror (and fantasy) in our country. Quite happily, having just finished the book last night, I can report that it exceeded every one of my expectations and provided many happy hours of reading to boot.

I plan to review Poe in my column next month as it does have enough suspense and thrills to fit (albeit loosely) into my mystery column. It is NOT a YA collection however, it is perfectly suitable for older high school readers and in many cases, other than being a wee bit frightening, would work broadly for the 14 & up crowd. But taken as a whole volume (and acknowledging one particularly racey and violent tale - a riff on "Red Death" of course) this is a title for only older teens (and the adults it's aimed at of course). If you are studying Poe as a high school junior or senior, then you will most definitely want to read Poe for the way it brings him often into contemporary (or even future) times and thus proves just how timeless the man's genius was.

As for specific stories, well a lot of them I thought were awesome. In fact I liked several so much that I'm going to review them separately over the next month so I can give them the attention I think they deserve (which won't happen in a general review because there is no space). Just generally though, Kim Newman goes after all those movie remakes of Poe stories, especially targeting Vincent Price, in a very Hollywood story, "Illimitable Domain". Melanie Tem tackles raven mythology (and a bit of negative Gypsy lore) in "The Pickers" which I thought was creepy in a psychological kind of way (as it crawled inside the head of a single mother who is not coping - at all). E. Catherine Tobler has one of those "maybe he got his stories from another world THAT REALLY EXISTS" kind of tales with "Beyond Porch and Portal". This one was cool because it was written from the perspective of Poe's niece after he was found nearly dead and provides a fantastic answer for where he was in those missing days. It also shows the darkside of faerie which I'm always happy to see and has a punch in the gut ending.

"The Final Act" by Gregory Frost has a twist ending that follows a plausible story about a marriage going bad. Frost took "The Imp of the Perverse" as his inspiration, a story I had never heard of but from his description fits perfectly with what he chose to write. It was Frost's story that really made me start to appreciate the short end notes each author has as they explain how they were inspired by Poe and specifically what prompted them to write the tales they did. They don't explain the story but they do explain the creative spark and as a reader interested in Poe, (and as a writer) I found them fascinating.

Laird Barron's "Strappado" is by far the most violent and sexy story in the bunch and - surprise - it was influenced by "Red Death" and also "The Cask of Amontillado". (It's the story that really sets this collection in older teen territory.) This story and also Suzy McKee Charnas's near future tale "Lowland Sea" are both upsetting as you can see either of them happening to anyone. Reading "Strappado" also made me think of stories from Studio 54 and the Viper Room and currently every stupid ass thing Paris Hilton and her friends have ever done. They aren't harshly moralistic tales though - just stories of how dull and twisted people can be and the mean stupid nasty things they do to each other. Think of "Hostel" or "Saw" and you can get the idea of where "Strappado" is going. The Charnas story is much more introspective and sad but still - shallow people and empty lives are front and center.

"The Mountain House" might seem like a car racing version of Field of Dreams (or so said Strange Horizons) but if you read Sharyn McCrumb's note and the poem she cites, "The Haunted Palace" then it takes on a much deeper meaning. I really liked this one as it seemed to bring Poe to a place where you wouldn't normally see him (NASCAR) and also because it was very human - perhaps the most human story in the collection. Barbara Roden's "Brink of Eternity" was my favorite of the book because - duh - it is about Arctic exploration! It also quotes John Symmes, one of my favorite nutcases, all over the place and perfectly captures why some reasonable men became completely unreasonable when faced with the north (hello Charles Francis Hall - also mentioned here). Lots of folks might not mention this story at all when reviewing the book but to someone like me, who knows her northern lit, it's awesome.

And let's see - Delia Sherman's modern gothic-y romance gone way bad (you will be screaming "run for your life girl!" all the way through this) is the story I'll be writing about first - next week. (It's called "The Red Piano".) M. Rickert, as usual, managed to horrify me with one of the most realistic stories in the collection. "Sleeping With the Angels" was sparked by "Annabel Lee" and it works....in the most painful sorrowful saddest way in the world, it works.

Pat Cadigan's "Truth and Bone" ends as you think it will and that is such a heart breaker. Steve Tem's "Shadow" is one of those end of days stories that lives at the heart of every "zombie/creepy thing in the woods/kill it, kill it now" movie you've ever seen. Scary. Nicholas Royle's "The Reunion" also reminded me of that Shining party (just a little) and has a nice creep quality about things looking alike - from places to people. It's an eerie peek at ordinary life that turns into Twilight Zone territory.

There are several others - all quite good - and collectively the whole book is just really really great. (Oh wait - Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a story - "Flitting Away" - that is so very timely and so sadly common and as she explains at the end - the worst kind of horror. It's about a girl who is attacked by running in a place and with a person that she thought was safe. And in the end she has to swallow that she must be grateful because she lived. Her life - as she knew it - is over and how she will construct another is a mystery and she did nothing wrong but be grateful everyone tells her. Be grateful. How could anything be more horrifying than that?)

I was inspired by the stories in Poe to reconsider the Edgar Allan Poe that I so dismally learned about decades ago. Not to get all English class here but one of the hardest things for me when reading classic authors is to identify with them and their times. I can enjoy them - but not always understand them or more importantly see how their stories apply to my life at all. (This has not changed where the Brontes are concerned.) I don't think that way anymore as far as Poe is concerned which is what made me think the book would be so good for high school students. It's a really well put together, well balanced, wonderful read. I look forward to writing more about the stories in the weeks to come.