They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. 
We’re reading the most original and classic American psychological short story thriller of all, Edgar Allan Poe”s “The Tell-Tale Heart.
Short story discussion group at OLLI is guaranteed to get weird!
Style: Edgar Allan Poe was sometimes associated in his lifetime with German Romanticism, or, as a friendly critic put it, “Germanism and gloom.” Poe didn’t try to deny that his writing was gloomy, but insisted that “terror was not of Germany, but of the soul.” (Introduction, The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe).
The Story of the Story: “A Story of Memorable Fiction”
His Deer Park Curse: On December 23, 1843, Edgar Allen Poe lectured at the Newark Academy (now the University of Delaware). According to local legend, he stayed at the St. Patrick’s Inn. As he was attempting to descend from a carriage at the Inn, he was reputed to have fallen in the mud and was so upset that he put a curse on the building. “A curse upon this place! All who enter shall have to return!” Patrons found this so amusing that they carried Poe into the tavern with a hero’s welcome. St. Patrick’s burned down eight years later, but the Deer Park was built on the same site, and has kept the legend alive. There is a bust of Poe that students rub for luck on their exams, and a tradition of returning to the Deer Park whenever former residents and students of the University are back in town. You can see that the spirit of Poe still presides over the town and the tavern in this article from the Newark Post.
His mysterious death: Read one version in this History Today article. The Smithsonian lists nine different theories.
Quotes: “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” Read more at AZQuotes
Sources:
PoeStories.com is a comprehensive source of information and critical commentary.
The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore has detailed biographies and scholarly articles.
