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Though we think of Edgar Allan Poe as the master of the detective story, the Gothic romance and horror story, the psychological thriller, the science fiction and fantasy short story, haunting lyrical poetry, and ground-breaking analytical criticism, it is interesting to consider him also as a regional writer. Poe is arguably the most popular and most influential American writer on world literature and culture, but his identity as a Southerner was never forgotten by him. Born in Boston to itinerant actors on January 19, 1809, the same year as Abe Lincoln and Alfred Tennyson, Poe grew up in Richmond as a foster child in the Allan family. He always described himself as a Virginian, and...