A madman does not know he is mad after all, and an insane mind would not have the resourcefulness to craft from words, the imagined worlds and circumstances that exist on no plane other than their own mind.

Only a true genius could put into words comprehensible to the average person, scenes of terror and dread and insanity, the likes of which the world had never known, simply by writing words. His words. To craft words in such a way, in such an order, to make one experience perceptible feelings of fright and madness. Love and loss. Pain and terror. Poe was a genius. A brilliant mind overflowing with scenarios, inventions, successions of events, worlds, landscapes and sounds. Sounds never heard by most human ears and possibly not even his own, but yet making those ears actually hear the sounds through his written words.

Poe did not simply touch on subjects as uncomfortable as a human mind becoming unhinged, he tore into these subjects with an unabashed and unapologetic quill in hand. Leaving us frightened, appalled, and uneasy, yet completely exhilarated.

Poe set the standard, well before the standard could be realized, and his works still stand untouched as the exemplar for all others, that may hope to attain even a fraction of his genius.'

It has been my great pleasure to allow Mr Poe to put words in my mouth, I hope you will enjoy hearing them. We have included one of his stories on each volume of the Spinechillers series, and for good measure, we have also added one of his brilliant poems to most volumes.