Wednesday, June 28, 2017

6/28/1843 The Gold-Bug is hatched

June 28, 1843.  This date marked the biggest payday of Edgar Allan Poe's career.  He entered his story "The Gold-Bug" in a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar News. He won, scoring a hundred bucks, and the story was published  on this day.  His tale of secret codes and buried pirate treasure inspired a huge interest in, well, secret codes and buried pirate treasure.  Logically enough.

We get a lot of our stereotypes about pirates from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island,but where did Stevenson get his ideas?  "I broke into the gallery of Mr. Poe," he confessed.  And we're all glad he did.
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1 comment:

  1. Jeff BakerJune 30, 2017 at 2:22 PM

    I've often wished E.A.P. could have kept writing into the later 1800's. Would have been nice for him to meet some of those later authors who emulated him.

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