Book description
Pushkin Press presents the first mainstream edition of The Journal
of Julius Rodman by Edgar Allen Poe, illustrated with photographs by
Edward S Curtis. The Journal of Julius Rodman is a fictionalised
account of the first travels across the Western Wilderness, over the
barrier of the Rocky Mountains. This extraordinary journal details
events of the most surprising nature, and recounts the unparalleled
vicissitudes and adventures experienced by a handful of men in a
country which, until then, had never been explored by 'civilised man'.
The first six installments of this novel were published in the
Burton's Gentleman's Magazine in 1839-40, when the author was a
contributing editor of the journal. When Poe left his job in June
1840, he refused to continue the novel. Extracts of Poe's work
infamously appeared in 1839 Congress papers citing his account of the
first passage across the Rockies by civilised man' as authentic.
Proving to be one of Poe's more elaborate hoaxes, this reaction
illuminates the extent to which his literary realism and acute
attention to detail strikes a convincing background to the hero's travels.
EDGAR ALLAN POE was an American poet, short-story writer, editor,
critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic
movement. Best known for his tales of the macabre and mystery, Poe was
one of the early American practitioners of the short story and a
progenitor of detective fiction and crime fiction. He is also credited
with contributing to the emergence of the science fiction genre. Poe
died in 1849, at the age of forty, of an undetermined illness.
