The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Softcover

Sixteen-year-old Arthur is looking for adventure. So he stows away on a whaling ship bound for the South Pacific. But he gets more excitement than he could ever have imagined when, soon after setting sail, the crew rebel against their captain and murder everyone who will not join them. As the leaderless ship sails deep into high southern latitudes, the ravenous sailors begin to regret their treachery. Storms overwhelm the decks, and the nightmare vision of a corpse-ridden ghost ship taunts them as they starve. It seems they are being punished for their sins ...

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was born in Boston and orphaned at an early age. Taken in by a couple from Richmond, Virginia, he spent a semester at the University of Virginia but could not afford to stay longer. After joining the Army and matriculating as a cadet, he started his literary career with the anonymous publication of Tamerlane and Other Poems, before working as a literary critic. His life was dotted with scandals, such as purposefully getting himself court-martialled to ensure dismissal from the Army, being discharged from his job at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond after being found drunk by his boss, and secretly marrying his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia (listed twenty-one on the marriage certificate). His work took him to both New York City and Baltimore, where he died at the age of forty, two years after Virginia.