This provocative novel explores the mysterious and confounding relationship between Poe and Sissy Clemm, his great love and constant companion.

INCLUDES MATTHEW PEARL'S EXCLUSIVE AUDIO AFTERWORD ON THE TRUTH BEHIND POE'S DEATH! Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. Everyone seems to accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end -- except for a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a crusade to salvage Poe's. As Quentin explores the puzzling...

These acerbic, poignant, and thought-provoking essays concern mankind, its relationship with God, and how the mind works. Twain himself considered them dark and cynical, delaying their publication for many years before finally releasing them as an anonymous, limited-edition collection. The title essay constitutes a deeply felt blow against religious hypocrisy, written in the form of a Socratic dialogue between a young idealist and an elderly, world-weary...

This modern classic is “a tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood” in 1930s Harlem—with a foreword by James Baldwin (Publishers Weekly).
 
Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it’s both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family. The beloved “daddy” of...

"A new anthology from Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler, centered around the historical enigma whose name has become synonymous with fear: Jack the Ripper. A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL. Of all the real-life serial killers whose gruesome deeds have splashed across headlines throughout human history, few have reached the near-mythical status of Jack the Ripper. Terrorizing the world with a rash of violent murders in London's East End...

Presents a fictional account of the life of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, a Cuban girl who used her poetry to resist her arranged marriage, fight against slavery, and champion women's rights.

The story of Frederick Douglass is passionate, harrowing, and inspiring. As a former slave, impassioned abolitionist, gifted writer, newspaper editor, and powerful orator, Douglass was an immense, motivational figure. His early life, filled with physical abuse, deprivation, and tragedy, adds up to a heart-wrenching history. However, he was able to overcome everything that bound a slave to his life and become a leading spokesman for his people.
In...

At once a romantic history of the mighty Mississippi River, an autobiographical account of Twain's early steamboat days, and a storehouse of anecdotes and sketches, this stirring account of America's vanished past is the raw material from which Twain wrote his finest novel--"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". A new introduction is provided by Twain biographer, Justin Kaplan.