Six has always been a number we group things around Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number.
Such is its popularity that we thought it is also a very good way of challenging and investigating an author's work to give width, brevity, humour and depth across six of their very best.
In this series we gather together authors whose short stories both rivet the attention and inspire the imagination to visit their gems in a series of six, to roam across an author's legacy in a few short hours and gain a greater understanding of their writing and, of course, to be lavishly entertained by their ideas, their narrative and their way with words.
These stories can be surprising and sometimes at a tangent to what we expected, but each is fully formed and a marvellous adventure into the world and words of a literary master.
Edgar Allan Poe è nato a Boston (USA) nel 1809 da una famiglia di attori girovaghi. Non ebbe modo di conoscerli approfonditamente poiché la madre morì quando ancora era un infante e il padre, alcolizzato, abbandonò la famiglia subito dopo la morte della moglie. Il piccolo Edgar fu quindi allevato da un ricco mercante di Richmond di nome John Allan.
Anche Edgar Allan Poe era solito deliziarsi dell'uso di alcool e gioco d'azzardo, motivo per cui John Allan lo estromise dal testamento.