Detective fiction

During the early decades of the last century. Edgar Allan Poe is the authentic father of the detective novel as we know it today. The evolution of this literary type began with The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), The Gold-Bug(1843), and The Purloined Letter (1845). In these three tales was born a new and original type of fictional entertainment. Though their structure has been modified, their method altered, their subject-matter expanded, and their craftsmanship developed, they remain almost perfect models of their kind today.

The later detective novel in many books. Not until the appearance of A Study in Scarlet in 1887, andThe Sign of Four in 1890. In these books and the later Sherlock Holmes vehicles Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought detective fiction into full-blown maturity.

Throughout the 1830s and 1840s Poe worked on various magazines in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York. His works were also published creepy short stories and poems, including The Purloined Letter (1945), The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) and The Cask of Amontillado (1846). His story The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is widely considered to be the first modern detective story, with Poe the forerunner of later masters of the craft like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christ.