Poe @ 200; Poe's Children

In the celebration of MLK/Civil Disobedience day yesterday and the celebration of Obama Inauguration/Bush exit today I almost forgot that monday was the 200th anniversary of one of my favorite authors, Edgar Allan Poe. Thankfully there is the tireless David Hudson to remind me of what I miss:

Poe @ 200

If you want to see the continuing influence of Poe on contemporary writers I suggest you check out Peter Straub's edited collection Poe's Children

It is my current late night reading. So far, I have read the first two stories: "The Bees" by Dan Chaon which literally terrified me with its story of loss/regret and inevitable return of the repressed and "Cleopatra Brimstone" by Elizabeth Hand a truly creepy, sometimes sexy, then plain freaky tale of metamorphosis/awakening/revenge. These two stories have me eager to tackle the rest of the book (while trying to slowly savor the literary horrors in the tradition of Scheherazade's nightly tales).