Grim Legion: Edgar Allan Poe at West Point

From the New York Times Book Review by Joe Queenan: A short while ago, a ripping yarn called Grim Legion: Edgar Allan Poe at West Point came across my desk. Published by Bewildering Press, a relatively new firm that specializes in speculative writing, Grim Legion recounts the rousing adventures of the future author of The Fall of the House of Usher shortly before he was expelled from the United States Military Academy in 1831. A bit of a screw-up, though not yet the morbid, self-destructive alcoholic he would later become, Poe has stumbled upon a monstrous plot by a shadowy organization called the Helvetian Society ... From the author, Jack Alcott: West Point Cadet Edgar Allan Poe and his crazier, opium-addicted brother, Henry Poe, try to solve a series of gruesome murders near the famed military academy — only to become prime suspects themselves. It’s a little-known fact that Poe was expelled from the academy in 1831 after just six months. To this day, the reasons for the 21-year old’s court-martial are sketchy. This historical suspense novel fills in the missing pieces ... Poe's real-life brother, Henry Leonard Poe, wrote and published more than 20 short stories and poems in Southern literary magazines before Edgar Poe had penned a single tale. Older than Edgar by two years, Henry was something of a rake and romantic who ran off to sea, sailed up the Amazon, fought in the Greek civil war and visited Russia, all in the late 1820s. A tubercular alcoholic, his tragic life was cut short at the age of 24 before he had a chance to fully develop his talent. Soon after his death, his brother began to write in earnest, achieving the immortality that forever escaped Henry. Jack Alcott's "Grim Legion" brings Henry back from the dead, exploring the close relationship between the two brothers and Henry's influence on the master of horror and mystery fiction. The novel attempts to rescue Edgar's brother, Henry Poe, from obscurity and restore him to his rightful place in early American literature — as a character and a major influence on his brother, if not a well-known author in his own right.