If you are interested in early mysteries, I recommend Early
German and Austrian Detective Fiction: An Anthology,
translated and edited by Mary Tannert and Henry Kratz
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999).
It includes The Caliber by Adolph Muellner, originally
published in 1828, 13 years before Poe's 1841 Murder in the
Rue Morgue, and an 1839 courtroom mystery, The Dead Man of
St. Anne's Chapel, by Otto Ludwig (pseudonym of Emil Freiherr
von Puttkammer).
Both predate Poe's mysteries. Poe read German. In fact, some
literary historians believe Poe got the idea for "The Fall of
the House of Usher" from a German story. (For more on this,
read The German Face of Edgar Allan Poe by Thomas Hansen and
Burton Pollin [Columbia, South Carolina: Camden House,
1995].)
So Poe may have been inspired by the early German mysteries
to write his own.
Vince Emery
Vince Emery Productions Publisher:
- LOST STORIES by Dashiell Hammett
- DISCOVERING THE MALTESE FALCON AND
SAM SPADE edited by Richard Layman
www.emerybooks.com Box 460279, San Francisco, CA 94146 USA
vince@emery.com Phone
1.415.337.6000
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