Darkness Becomes Bright

Darkness Becomes Bright is an unflinching exploration of horror, the human condition, and how Edgar Allan Poe's haunted legacy might keep us company in moments of darkness. 'A wonderfully engaging account of Poe's troubled life . . . Nimble, generous, brimming with insight' - SARAH WATERS 'Emily Ogden does not flinch from the obscure and sometimes horrifying recesses of Poe's psychosis' - SUE PRIDEAUX Are you brave enough to step into the darkness? Edgar Allan Poe did not truly die. In the years since his mysterious demise, his works have captivated millions and spawned the genres of horror and the detective story. His masterpieces - filled with talking ravens and buried women, haunted houses and beating hearts - live on in our imaginations and our nightmares. They are endlessly adapted, parodied and obsessed over. But who was Edgar Allan Poe? And why does he haunt us still? Following the course of Poe's fascinating, short and tragic life - from his fame as the poet of 'The Raven' to his tortured romances and literary feuds - Emily Ogden dives deep into the mind of a man whose darkness has shaped our world, and interweaves his story with those of the devoted readers who have found solace in his work. 'Spellbinding . . . This portrait of Poe will haunt you to the grave and beyond' - Christine Smallwood 'Emily Ogden brilliantly exhumes the beating heart of America's darkest poet' - Orlando Reade

Emily Ogden is the author of On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays and Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism. Her writing has appeared in The Yale Review, Critical Inquiry, The New York Times, American Literature, the LA Review of Books Quarterly Journal, The Point, and Berfrois, among other publications. The recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and a Mellon Fellowship in the Columbia Society of Fellows, she is Professor of English at the University of Virginia.