Episode 1 (with Richard Kopley)

In our first episode, I talk to Richard Kopley, Professor Emeritus of English at Penn State DuBois, about his upcoming critical biography Edgar Allan Poe: A Life, under contract with University of Virginia Press. In the interview, Richard discusses the primary inspiration for the project: a box of letters by Flora Lapham Mack (a member of the extended family of John H. MacKenzie, one of Poe’s lifelong friends) containing a series of stories about Poe previously unknown to the world (5:02). After previewing one of these new stories (10:02), we turn our attention to the research and writing process, focusing on his archival research experiences and insights, connections between biography and literary criticism, his work's relation to other Poe biographies, writing strategies, and more. --Caleb Doan, host of POEcast