Edgar Allan Poe: Malacologist

Writer turns snail fancier

“Murex pecten, philippines, wd bledsoe, closeup_2016–02–23–11.13” by Sam Droege is marked with CC PDM 1.0

In 1839, Edgar Allan Poe wrote ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. That same year, he also wrote ‘The Conchologist’s First Book’, an introductory text to the scientific study of molluscs and other shelled organisms. It would not be difficult, with a little imagination, to identify a thematic link between the Usher home and dynasty and the intertwined fate of the two, and a book that…