Edward G Pettit

The Library Company of Philadelphia's exhibition, Philadelphia Gothic: Murders, Mysteries, Monsters, and Mayhem Inspire American Fiction, 1798-1854, is a must see for anyone interested in the great American gothic of the early 19th century. You can listen to a podcast of Christopher Looby's presentation from the exhibition's opening last October.

And you can come on out on Thursday,Feb 19, at 5:30 to hear me give a talk:

Edgar Allan Poe and the Philadelphia Gothic Tradition

When Edgar Allan Poe arrived in Philadelphia in 1838, he found a literary tradition awaiting him. In the late 18th Century, Charles Brockden Brown had urbanized and Americanized the macabre Gothic literature of Europe. Brown's novels influenced the generation of writers who followed, including two Philadelphians, George Lippard and Robert Montgomery Bird.  Poe’s writing career was set afire in this flaming channel of literature known as “Philadelphia Gothic.” Edward Pettit will give a talk tracing the connections between these writers, how they reacted to each others' works, how each influenced the other and how Philadelphia Gothic, through its greatest practitioner, Edgar Allan Poe, became one of the most influential sub-genres in American Literary History.