The Man Who Was Poe was published by Orchard Books in 1989. Edmund, a young boy in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1848, is alone — his aunt has vanished, his sister has disappeared, and he has no one to turn to. He encounters a mysterious stranger who turns out to be Edgar Allan Poe, in Providence during the period of his doomed courtship of the poet Sarah Helen Whitman. Poe agrees to help Edmund find his sister, but his investigative methods are those of his fictional detective Auguste Dupin — and as the case progresses, Edmund realizes that Poe is more interested in shaping events into a satisfying narrative than in finding the truth.
The novel played with the boundary between fiction and reality: Poe’s compulsion to turn everything into a story — to find the aesthetic shape in human suffering — was both his genius and his moral failing.
Collecting The Man Who Was Poe
First edition (Orchard Books, New York, 1989): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $25–$60
- Very good: $10–$25
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Poe as Detective
Avi places the real Edgar Allan Poe in a fictional mystery: in 1848 Providence, Rhode Island, a boy named Edmund seeks help finding his missing sister and aunt. The stranger who agrees to help turns out to be Poe — impoverished, alcoholic, and in the final months of his life. As Poe investigates, he begins transforming the real events into a story, and Edmund realises that Poe cares more about the narrative than about the people. The novel explores the relationship between art and life, and the moral cost of the artistic imagination.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Avi written? Over seventy, spanning nearly every genre of children’s and young-adult literature. His range is remarkable: historical fiction (Crispin, The Fighting Ground), fantasy (Poppy, Perloo the Bold), mystery (The Man Who Was Poe), thriller (Wolf Rider), realistic fiction (Nothing but the Truth), and adventure (Charlotte Doyle).