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The Beautiful Cigar Girl Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of
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The Beautiful Cigar Girl Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder Hardback - 2006

by Daniel Stashower

A gruesome murder, a stunned city, and Edgar Allan Poe come to life with vivid detail in this shocking true story by award-winning author Daniel Stashower

On July 28, 1841, the battered body of a young woman was found floating in the Hudson River. It was soon discovered to be the lovely Mary Rogers, a twenty-year-old cigar salesgirl who had gone missing three days earlier. By nightfall, news of the girl's death had spread and sent Manhattan into a spasm of horror and outrage.

In the months that followed, the gruesome details of the murder pushed American journalism into previously unimagined realms of lurid sensationalism. But despite media pressures, New York City's unregulated and disjointed police force proved unable to mount an effective investigation, and the crime remained unsolved.

A year after Mary Rogers was murdered, as public interest in the case began to wane, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case. At the time of the murder, thirty-one-year-old Poe had recently published his groundbreaking detective story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue.' A year later, however, his fortunes had taken a downward turn. Desperate for success, Poe sent his famous detective, C. Auguste Dupin, on the case of a lifetime: to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in 'The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.'

In The Beautiful Cigar Girl, Edgar Award-winning author Daniel Stashower deftly captures the drama and mystery of New York in the mid-nineteenth century, illuminating the spellbinding crime that transformed a city.

A Featured Alternate selection of Book-of-the-Month Club, Mystery Guild, Literary Guild, Doubleday and Quality Paperback book clubs.


Summary

On July 28, 1841, the body of Mary Rogers, a twenty-year-old cigar girl, was found floating in the Hudson-and New York's unregulated police force proved incapable of solving the crime. One year later, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case-and sent his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in "The Mystery of Marie Rogt."

From the publisher

Daniel Stashower, the Edgar Award-winning author of the highly acclaimed Arthur Conan Doyle biography Teller of Tales, delivers a gripping true story of murder and media mania--including the controversial involvement of Edgar Allan Poe--in 1840s New York. Halftone photos throughout.

First line

IN JUNE OF 1842, Edgar Allan Poe took up his pen to broach a delicate subject with an old friend.

Details

  • Title The Beautiful Cigar Girl Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder
  • Author Daniel Stashower
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First Printing
  • Pages 336
  • Language EN
  • Publisher Dutton Adult, New York
  • Date October 5, 2006
  • ISBN 9780525949817

Media reviews

Masterfully researched, marvelously conceived, and passionately written. (Caleb Carr)

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