Books

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Edgar Allan Poe has had quite the busy afterlife. In addition to writing dozens of new poems, his ghost has been spotted in at least seven different cities, and he supposedly frequents three different bars. This book follows the trail of Poe's elusive spirit from his death in 1849 until today.

Paperback, Hardcover, and Kindle, 146 pages

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Click here to listen to an interiew about Haunting Poe on Spirited History's website.

This is the true story of the world's most coveted Edgar Allan Poe artifacts, the researchers who hunted for them, the collectors who competed for them, and the shrine that became their repository.

Paperback, 224 pages

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Click here to read a review of The Poe Shrine in Richmond Magazine.

Stories from our latest collection feature gritty murders on the streets of Chicago, New York, L.A., London and Paris, horrors in dark alleys, as well as many more scenes from urban crime that elicit a dark curiosity. Classic authors such as Edgar Wallace and E.W. Hornung are cast with previously unpublished stories by exciting budding contemporary crime writers to bring you the latest anthology in our successful series. Foreword by Christopher P. Semtner.

Hardcover, 480 pages

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This handsomely bound anthology contains many of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest short stories with a foreword by author and artists Christopher P. Semtner.

Hardcover, 480 pages

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One of the most popular poems in the English language, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) has thrilled generations of readers. In 1882, the Anglo-American artist James Carling decided to produce the definite series of illustrations for the poem. Carling’s bizarre images explore the darkest recesses of Poe’s masterpiece, its hidden symbolism, and its strange beauty. Although the series remained unpublished at the time of the artist’s early death in 1887, the drawings reemerged fifty years later when they entered the collection of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia where they lined the blood-red walls of a Raven Room dedicated to their display. For the first time, The Raven Illustrations of James Carling: Poe’s Classic in Vivid View, written by Poe Museum Curator Christopher Semtner, reproduces the entire series in full color and tells the story behind these haunting artworks.

Paperback, 128 pages

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Journey through the Richmond author Edgar Allan Poe knew with this collection of true accounts from Poe's life in the city. Chapters cover such topics as Poe's celebrated six-mile swim in the James River, Poe's meeting with Lafayette, Poe's solution to the mystery of the chess-playing automaton, and Poe's wedding. The book is richly illustrated with 51 black-and-white photographs. 

128 pages, paperback

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Click here to read an excerpt of a review of Edgar Allan Poe's Richmond in The Edgar Allan Poe Review.

Following the great success of 2015's Gothic Fantasy, deluxe edition short story compilations, Ghosts, Horror and Science Fiction, this latest in the series is packed with hard-boiled detectives, monsters, psychopaths and a high body count. Tales of death and destruction from classic authors are cast with previously unpublished stories by exciting contemporary hardcore crime writers. Foreword by Christopher P. Semtner.

Hardcover, 480 pages

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Have you ever wondered what Poe's boyhood homes looked like or just who the minister who performed Poe's wedding ceremony was? Here is your chance to follow in Poe's footsteps by seeing the faces and places he knew during some of the most important years of his life. This book, written on behalf of the Poe Museum, contains nearly two hundred of the Poe Museum's rarely seen photographs, prints, and paintings of the people and places Poe knew during his many years in Richmond. A part of Arcadia Publishing's popular Images of America series, Edgar Allan Poe in Richmond is an exploration of Poe's world, how it influenced him, and how he influenced it.

Paperback, 128 pages

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This full-color catalog of the Poe Museum's exhibit "Poe in Comics" details the history of Edgar Allan Poe's presence in comic books and graphic novels. Preface by Christopher P. Semtner. 

Paperback, 72 pages

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This collection of fifteen original essays and one original poem explores the theme of “place” in the life, works, and afterlife of Edgar A. Poe (1809-1849). Poe and Place argues that “place” is an important critical category through which to understand this classic American author in new and interesting ways. The geographical “places” examined include the cities in which Poe lived and worked, specific locales included in his fictional works, imaginary places featured in his writings, physical and imaginary places and spaces from which he departed and those to which he sought to return, places he claimed to have gone, and places that have embraced him as their own. The geo-critical and geo-spatial perspectives in the collection offer fresh readings of Poe and provide readers new vantage points from which to approach Poe’s life, literary works, aesthetic concerns, and cultural afterlife. Chapter  "Poe's Richmond and Richmond's Poe" contributed by Christopher P. Semtner.

Hardcover, 402 pages

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Test your code-breaking skills through 11 puzzles, including examples using the Caesar Cipher, substitution ciphers, and Lewis Carroll’s alphabet cipher.

Paperback, 32 pages

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Click here to visit Semtner's author page on Amazon.

Click here to read reviews of Semtner's books on GoodReads.

One hundred and sixty-six years ago today, Edgar Allan Poe died a mysterious death. The curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia takes a look at 13 of his horror stories that were based on reality. 

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One hundred and sixty-five years ago on October 7, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe died a mysterious death. Christopher P. Semtner, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, offers 13 facts about the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise. 

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Late one October night, a phone call awoke the director of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. The anonymous caller said he would reveal the whereabouts of the missing bust of Edgar Allan Poe if the director would read to him Poe’s poem “Spirits of the Dead.” 

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