Composed half-a-century ago, The Ballad of Beta-2 was a science-fiction vision of the future that speaks directly to our present.

Poe's 1841 story, arguably the first detective fiction, contains many tropes now considered standard to the genre, including a brilliant, amateur detective.

The American writer was an enthusiast of the sciences, which may explain his decision to “adapt” a text about seashells for publication under his own name.

The party as site of contagion in Edgar Allan Poe, Evelyn Waugh, and Ling Ma.

The birth of the penny press, the first mass media, was very much mixed up with fake news, including the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.