This is a fascinating article about the ongoing relevance of Care Experienced Writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), not only as the initiator (many say) of the detective fiction genre.

Hannah Murray, University of Melbourne, tells us about Austrian singers Teya and Salena—they will represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Context this year in Liverpool—who say their song writing talent is a result of being possessed by Poe.

Murray goes on to say there is a long tradition of such “possession”. She gives the example of a group of “young female spiritualists” who, “in the 1850s and 1860s…wrote and published poetry from the “spirit of Edgar A. Poe”.

Hannah Murray concludes with a discussion about Poe’s fascination with human consciousness surviving death, long before the “spiritualist boom” from the late 19th century.