Radio Appearances

Matthew Pearl talks about The Last Dickens on the national NPR show All Things Considered. Listen here. (5/10/09). Matthew also gives a tour of the Parker House, Dickens's homebase in Boston and one of the settings of The Last Dickens, to NPR show "Here & Now", which can be heard here. (6/1/09) On NPR's On Point The Last Dickens is chosen as part of a list of summer reading. (6/4/09)

Matthew Pearl talks about The Last Dickens on The Book Show with Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina on Northeast Public Radio here (3/25/09) and in a podcast interview with Dana Barrett at Better World Books here (6/12/09). Also on The Arts Show on RTE radio Ireland. Listen here. (2/25/09).

Matthew Pearl was interviewed about The Poe Shadow and particularly its connection to Baltimore for Clear Reception on Baltimore NPR WTMD with Sheri Parks. Listen here. (8/16/06).

Matthew Pearl was interviewed about The Poe Shadow on the NPR national radio show "Weekend Edition Sunday" with reporter Tom Vitale. You can listen to the interview online by clicking here (7/9/06).

Matthew Pearl was interviewed about The Dante Club on the NPR national radio show "Weekend Edition Sunday" with guest host Linda Wertheimer. You can listen to the interview online by clicking here (3/2/03).

Matthew Pearl and Harvard Professor Lino Pertile were interviewed together on the widely aired NPR radio show, "The Connection with Dick Gordon," aired in over sixty markets. You can listen to the show on this webpage (3/3/03). Pearl and Pertile also discussed "Dante and the Afterlife" on the Modern Language Association radio "What's the Word." Listen here.

Matthew Pearl walks "Here & Now" (NPR affiliate WBUR) host Robin Young on a "Dante Club" tour of the Longfellow House in Cambridge (listen here) (3/12/03), and chats to "Here & Now" guest host Anthony Brooks about Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday anniversary (listen here) (14 Jan 2009) and for the same occasion speaks with reporter Matt Largey for "All Things Considered" (listen here) (19 Jan 2009).

Matthew Pearl was interviewed twice on the syndicated talk show "Eye on Books" with host Bill Thompson, aired across the country. The interviews can be heard online here for The Dante Club and here for The Poe Shadow. (April 2003, July 2006)

Matthew Pearl is interviewed about the history of international copyright in literature for Australian national radio (ABC). Listen to the interview online at this site. (3/07)

Matthew Pearl has also appeared on the Lewis Burke Frumkes Show (WPAT-FM New York), Chapter One with Simon Rose (snydicated), Morning Edition with Jeff Schechtman (KVON-FM/Napa NPR), Dan Skinner Show (WBAA-AM/Indiana NPR), Pete Brayley and Co. (WBSM-AM Massachusetts), the Jordan Rich Show (WBZ-AM Boston), Words and Music with Leslie Schultz (WMFO-AM/Boston), the Mike Horn Show (CRN National Radio), the Peter Solomon Show (WIP-AM Philadelphia), the Greg Berg show (WGTD-FM Milwaukee), Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jacques (WPR Wisconsin Public Radio), Sunday Morning News (KUOM-FM University of Minnesota), First News with Rod Fritz (WRKO-AM Boston), Morning Report with Clarence Bucaro (WBKC-AM Cleveland), Afternoon Magazine with Celeste Quinn (WILL-AM/Chicago NPR), Newsworthy with Al Primo (Newsworthy Network national radio), Barbara Altman's Front Porch (WOND-AM New Jersey), Cover to Cover with Mark Dewitt (WRRS-FM Cincinatti), Living Writers (WCBN-FM University of Michigan), Enid Goldstein Show (KNRC-AM Denver), Conversations with Larry Meiller (Wisconsin Public Radio), The Open Line with Tom Kearney (WPTF-AM Raleigh), Live from Prairie Lights with Julie Englander (WSUI AM 910 Iowa City), Word for Word with Dotun Adebayo (BBC London Radio), Oneword (UK), The Arts Show (BBC Radio Scotland), The Word (BBC World Service), Rattlebag (RTE radio Ireland), The Simon Mayo Show (BBC Five Radio).

Television Appearances & Features

A Good Morning America Summer Reading Pick! Good Morning America chooses The Poe Shadow as one of the best summer reads. (See list here) (July 3, 2006)

A CBS Sunday Morning Book Pick! CBS Sunday Morning features New York Times literary critic Janet Maslin choosing The Poe Shadow as one of the best books for summer reading. (Watch segment online) (May 28, 2006)

Matthew Pearl appeared on New England Cable Network, interviewed by Jim Concannon, books editor for The Boston Globe. View clip here. (August, 2006)

Matthew Pearl appeared on WHDH-TV New England's Channel 7 news to discuss his volunteer work at The Animal Rescue League of Boston. Watch it here. (June 8, 07)

Matthew Pearl was featured on the nationally broadcast PBS program The Newshour with Jim Lehrer as part of a segment on recent trends in the publishing industry. To watch online, click here (and scroll down to "Selling Books")... to read a transcript or listen to RealAudio version of the story, click here. (5/27/03)

Matthew Pearl was interviewed on Connie Martinson's "Talks Books", aired at various times across the country on public and cable television. (3/26/03)

Matthew Pearl was interviewed on New York One's "Close-Up with Sam Roberts" (2/19/03).

Matthew Pearl was interviewed about The Dante Club on WBZ-4 CBS Boston and Fox 25 Boston. (2/18/03)

Matthew Pearl was interviewed about THE DANTE CLUB and Boston literary history on the acclaimed news show Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5, Boston's ABC affiliate. (12/12/02)

Print Interviews, Articles, Essays and Online Features, and Miscellaneous spottings

The Last Dickens featured in the New York Times Book Review PAPERBACK ROW of noteworthy paperback titles. (November 1, 2009)

Julia Keller's column in The Chicago Tribune features Matthew Pearl and The Last Dickens. (April 12, 2009)

A reading by Matthew Pearl profiled in this article in The Daily (University of Washington). (April 9, 2009)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: Matthew Pearl's novels are discussed in the Editor's Note of the academic journal Neo Victorian Studies 2:1, Winter 2008/2009.

Interview with Matthew Pearl appears in a North-West Indiana Times article. (April 3, 2009)

Bloomberg News covers the launch of The Last Dickens. Click here for the article. (March 23, 2009)

Miami New Times interviews Matthew Pearl about The Last Dickens. Click here. (March 20 2009)

Iowa Press-Citizen writes about Matthew Pearl and The Last Dickens. Click here to read it. (March 2009)

See Matthew Pearl's entry in Marshal Zeringue's blog The Page 99 Test for The Last Dickens. (March 2009)

Matthew Pearl writes an article on Dickens and his historical stalker for Slate. Click here to read the article. More coverage of the topic in the London Sunday Times here.(March 22, 2009)

Matthew Pearl contributes an essay on "Dickens v America" for More Intelligent Life (The Economist online) (feature link on Arts & Letters Daily). Click here to read the essay. (March 2009)

Matthew Pearl discusses The Last Dickens at Crime Time. (12 February 2009)

Matthew Pearl contributes to the "Character Study" column of the London Metro with comments on Edwin Drood in honor of The Last Dickens. (4 February 2009)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: Professor Cossetta Guadenzi devotes an article to The Dante Club in a scholarly article "Dante's Introduction to the United States as Investigated in Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club Italian Culture" - in the journal Italian Culture Volume 26, 2008, pp. 85-103. (2008)

Jane Sullivan considers the lasting influence of Edgar Allan Poe including Matthew Pearl's The Poe Shadow in an article in The Age. (20 September 2008)

A Poe related discovery by Matthew Pearl is featured in the October 22, 2007 issue of The New York Observer. Click here to read the article by Leon Neyfakh. More coverage at the London Times (10/20) and the London Observer (10/21). (October 21, 2007)

See Matthew Pearl's entry in Marshal Zeringue's blog The Page 99 Test for The Poe Shadow. (September 2007)

The Poe Shadow featured in the New York Times Book Review PAPERBACK ROW of noteworthy paperback titles. (September 2, 2007)

Matthew Pearl's tour of the Longfellow National Historic Site for a local book club is profiled in this article in The Sun Chronicle (New England). (November 5, 07)

Matthew Pearl is one of the commentators in the featurette "Charlie Chan and the Rise of the Modern Detective" in the Charlie Chan Collection, Volume 3, on DVD. (September 07)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: Professor Gwendolyn Morgan devotes a chapter to The Dante Club in her book The Invention of False Medieval Authorities as a Literary Device in Popular Fiction. (September 07)

The Poe Shadow is a Paperback Pick by the Chicago Sun-Times. (August 26, 2007)

The Poe Shadow is now out in paperback in the US and a paperback bestseller around the country! Check out coverage including this article in the Philadelphia City Paper, an interview in the Arizona Republic, and a feature at BostonNOW by Cris Rodriguez. (July-August 2007)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: On the episode of "America's Top Model" airing on May 9, 2007, one of the competing models is seen reading The Dante Club. (May 07)

A Matthew Pearl spotting. The Dante Club is mentioned in a Chicago Sun article "Lightning Rod" about controversial creative writing. (April 29, 07)

A Matthew Pearl spotting. Matthew Pearl mentioned in the New York Times Book Review essay, "Call me Ishmael." (March 25, 07)

Matthew Pearl's quotes featured in a Boston Globe article by Kathleen Burge on Poe's legacy in Boston. (January 07)

The Baltimore Sun's Linell Smith profiles and interviews Matthew Pearl and The Poe Shadow. Click here for article. Also read profiles from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Atlanta Sunday Paper (July 2006)

Two extensive interviews online: with Levi Asher at Litkicks (interview here), and with Octavia Randolph at her site on historical fiction (interview here). (July 06)

US News & World Report chooses The Poe Shadow as one of the notable books of the summer. (July 3, 2006)

The Poe Shadow appears on summer reading lists at The Arizona Republic, The New York Sun, The Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe. Also, the new reads list at The Denver Post and The New York Daily News. (May-June 2006)

The Poe Shadow appears on bestseller lists around the country, including the Booksense Bestseller List, the National College Campus Bestseller List, the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List, the San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller List, the Boston Globe Bestseller List, the Rocky Mountain News Bestseller List, the Denver Post Bestseller List and the Washington Post Bestseller List. (June 2006)

Village Voice chooses The Poe Shadow as one of the best summer books. (June 13, 2006)

Publishers Weekly writes The Poe Shadow is "a solid hit." (June 5, 2006)

Matthew Pearl and The Poe Shadow are profiled by John Patrick Pullen in Continental Magazine, the in-flight magazine of Continental Airlines, in this article. (June 06)

Matthew Pearl and The Poe Shadow are profiled by David Hiltbrand in the Philadelphia Inquirer. (1 June 06)

The Arizona Republic recommends The Poe Shadow for summer reading. (22 May 06)

The London Metro profiles Matthew Pearl and The Poe Shadow in this article. (18 May 06)

The Poe Shadow is included in the "Cover to Cover" article about upcoming books in The Atlantic Monthly. (June issue 2006)

Boston Magazine includes a photo and article about Matthew Pearl. (June issue 2006)

The Boston Herald includes The Dante Club in their recommended books in the article "Masschusetts Reads." (4/11/2005)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: Matthew Pearl is the subject of a "Godoku" Puzzle online. (3 Apr '06)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: A Boston Herald society article by Dana Bisbee mentions Matthew Pearl's participation in a fundraiser for Jumpstart.

A Matthew Pearl spotting: The Dante Club is mentioned in a Boston Globe article about Boston College's readings of The Divine Comedy. (4 Dec '05)

The Improper Bostonian profiles Matthew Pearl's volunteer work with animals in need in the article "The Secret Life of Writers." (9/14/2005)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: Fortune magazine editor and CNN commentator Andy Serwer in his Street Life column reports listening to The Dante Club audio book on his iPod. (9/13/2005)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: In the August 22 issue of Business Week the article "Cutting Through the Noise" mentions The Dante Club. (8/22/2005)

Publishers Weekly profiles books, including The Dante Club, that are popular with reading groups and book clubs. (Article "Reads Well With Others" available online only to PW subscribers.) (5/23/2005)

Matthew Pearl's op-ed "The Lost Continent of The Atlantic," on the move of The Atlantic Monthly out of Boston, appears in The New York Times. Click here to read the op-ed online. (free registration may be required to log-in.) (5/02/05)

THE DANTE CLUB is mentioned in a London Times Online article that journeys through literary Boston. (11/9/04)

Matthew Pearl writes on why we read Dante in Babelia, literary supplement of Spanish newspaper El Pais. (article online for subscribers only). (in Spanish). (10/9/04)

Matthew Pearl considers the genre of "intellectual thriller" in this article for Argentine newspaper Clarin (in Spanish). (9/18/04)

A Matthew Pearl spotting: Check out the September issue of Architectural Digest and notice The Dante Club on the bedside table of famed designer Juan Montoya. (9/04)

The Chicago Tribune discusses The Dante Club in an article on historical mysteries. (8/25/04)

The New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin joins the "Club," posting a generous comment on The Dante Club at his website. Make sure to check out his new blockbuster thriller, Sleeping Beauty. (8/04)

An interview with Matthew Pearl appears in the new multinational internet magazine of current affairs and culture, "Three Monkeys Online". You can read the article by clicking here. (4/04)

The New York Public Library chooses The Dante Club as one of the 25 Books to Remember of 2003, which honors "exceptional fiction and nonfiction titles." Also included is THE COFFEE TRADER by David Liss (author site), one of the earliest authors to generously support The Dante Club. (3/04)

For a new analysis and review of The Dante Club by a literary journal, go to the Cercles Review. (3/04)

Good Housekeeping's April issue (on sale 3/5) selects The Dante Club and Boston for a special insert called "Book It!" that features 11 books, classic and contemporary, connected with travel destinations. Read an article about the insert here, and check out the April issue of Good Housekeeping, or click here for the article! (3/04)

Paperback release of The Dante Club in US & Canada, featured in The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Globe & Mail. (2/04)

The Baltimore Sun profiles a book club and discusses their reading of The Dante Club. (2/12/04)

Matthew Pearl's article "Death Penalty" (online here) cited in a major Massachusetts District Court decision by Judge Mark Wolf regarding the execution sentence of Gary Sampson. (1/29/04)

The London Times profiles Matthew Pearl. (available online to subscribers only) (1/25/04)

Deadly Pleasures chooses The Dante Club as one of the best books of the year. (1/04)

The Providence Journal includes The Dante Club in their review of the year's best books. (12/28/03)

The Word literary magazine (UK) includes The Dante Club in their review of the year's best books. (12/03)

U.S. News & World Report selects The Dante Club for their year-end review of best books entitled "What Readers Want". (12/15/03)

The Boston Globe is "Making a List" of great gift books, including THE DANTE CLUB. (12/7/03)

The Boston Globe selects The Dante Club as one of the top books of the year in their "Bounty of Books." (11/28/03).

THE DANTE CLUB is named one of the Best of 2003 Mysteries and Thrillers by Borders. (11/03)

San Francisco Chronicle chooses The Dante Club as one of the top Mysteries & Thrillers for their Holiday Book Review. (11/16/03)

The Boston Globe's Sunday article "Murder in the Library" by Harvard professor Leland de la Durantaye features discussion of THE DANTE CLUB. (11/02/03)

The Cambridge Chronicle (10/22) features an article about Matthew Pearl's Dante Club tours and a Q&A with the author, both by reporter Jenny Attiyeh. (10/03)

Library Journal (10/1 issue) chooses The Dante Club as one of the best first novels of the Spring/Summer season, calling it an "exemplary literary mystery." (10/03)

Matthew Pearl interviews author James Carroll as part of the Authors Interview Authors section of the Literary Issue of the Improper Bostonian. (10/03)

Matthew Pearl is included in the "Hot List" of authors in Boston Magazine's September 2003 issue. (9/03)

Check out recent write-ups of The Dante Club at the Copperfield Review and at Alfred Hitchock's Mystery Magazine. (8/04/03)

Book Magazine spotlights the audio book version of The Dante Club. (7/03)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's books editor Geeta Sharma-Jensen profiles Matthew Pearl. (6/8/03)

Laura Nalesnik in a Wellesley Townsman article profiles an "Authors on Stage" program that included a presentation by Matthew Pearl. (5/15/03)

THE DANTE CLUB audio book, narrated by Boyd Gaines, has been selected by Booksense 76 as a Top Ten Audiobook, marking the recognition of June as National Audiobook Month. (5/03)

The Hartford Courant included Matthew Pearl in a feature by Maurice Timothy Reidy, "On a Different Paper Chase," about Yale Law School writers. (5/9/03)

The Hollywood Reporter sings the praises of The Dante Club in an article about recent novels. (5/9/03)

The Harrisburg Patriot-News profiles Matthew Pearl's participation over speakerphone with a Pennsylvania book club. (5/8/03)

Boston Magazine (May issue) features Matthew Pearl in an article about young Boston writers. (4/28/03)

Details Magazine features Matthew Pearl as one of the "25 New Faces Who Matter" in their annual "Next Big Thing" issue (April issue). (3/20/03)

Matthew Pearl's "Author Talk" interview is featured at Bookreporter.com. Also, check out Bookreporter's fantastic full-length review of The Dante Club. (3/15/03)

Matthew Pearl profiled in a Sun Sentinel article by books editor Chauncy Mabe. (3/12/03)

UPI's Pat Nason profiles the unique reaction to The Dante Club's "Caution to the Reader." (4/1/03)

Matthew Pearl's op-ed "Let Us Read Longfellow," on why we need to read Longfellow now more than ever, appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, 3/10. Click here to read the op-ed online. (3/12/03)

Matthew Pearl was featured in an Entertainment Weekly article (from the 3/7 issue) about Yale Law School writers. (3/5/03)

The Boston Globe's David Mehegan profiles Matthew Pearl and The Dante Club in a feature article (3/3/03).

Under the headline "Igniting an Inferno", Publishers Weekly writes about the success of The Dante Club as part of their "Behind the Bestsellers" column. It's not available online, but here's some of what they have to say: "Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club, a first novel that's been generating a buzz ever since PW noted its genesis back in 2000 (Hot Deals, Apr. 17). Perry added, "We've had reviews just about everywhere you'd want them, and this seems to be one of those rare instances where reviews are actually selling books." Pearl, a 1997 summa cum laude Harvard grad, wrote the first draft of The Dante Club while attending Yale Law School. His seven-city tour began on February 20 with an SRO reading at Barnes & Noble's Astor Place location in N.Y.C.; in addition, a crew from The News Hour with Jim Lehrer followed Pearl around Gotham for a forthcoming feature, "Making a Bestseller." Among other media to come are an AP feature and an EW story on Yale writers." (3/2/03)

Matthew Pearl is featured in an Associated Press article by Hillel Italie on young novelists turning to history for inspiration. Click here to read the article online.

Matthew Pearl is profiled in the Hartford Courant by Steve Courtney. (2/16/03)

Matthew Pearl profiled in this Harvard Crimson article and in this Yale Daily News article. (2/03)

The Dante Club and Matthew Pearl are profiled in a full-length feature article in the major Italian newspaper, La Repubblica. Click here to read the article.

Matthew Pearl and The Dante Club were profiled by Angela Salvucci in the Quincy Patriot Ledger (2/1/03).

Matthew Pearl is the featured profile in the "Promising Debuts" section of Pages Magazine January/February 2003 issue.

Matthew Pearl's article on "Dante and the Death Penalty" appeared in the January/February 2003 "Crime and Punishment" issue of Legal Affairs magazine. (Click here to read the article.)

Awards, Nominations, Honors, and International News

The Poe Shadow is a longlisted nominee for the IMPAC Dublin International Literary Award. (November 2007)

The Poe Shadow is included in a Publishers Weekly cover story as a top selling hardcover book of the year. (March 26, 2007)

The Poe Shadow comes out in paperback in the UK. The London Telegraph chooses The Poe Shadow as the Pick of the Paperbacks (6 Jan 07). Check out this poster seen in the London underground stations! The next couple of months, Poe Shadow will be published in Germany and France. (January 2007)

The international bestseller The Poe Shadow is now published in Poland and Italy. See the Polish website and the Italian website. Check out this Polish billboard on the streets of Warsaw! (Sept 2006)

International Bestseller!The Poe Shadow's Spanish edition, published by Seix Barral, appears on the national bestseller lists in Spain (and in Catalonia). Check out the terrific Spanish website by clicking here. Check out feature articles in Spanish periodicals here, and here. (June 2006)

Publishers Weekly's article "Something New, Something Old" includes The Dante Club as one of the top trade paperback bestsellers of the year. (3/27/06)

The Dante Club wins a Book Standard Bestseller award, the first-ever industry awards to honor consumer choice by celebrating the top blockbuster titles of the past year. The Dante Club took the #1 spot in Mystery & Detective Historical Fiction category and was reported as one of the "titles that stole the spotlight over the course of the evening" at the awards ceremony in New York. (9/23/05)

Check out the Russian webpage for The Dante Club! (4/05)

Check out the Polish website for The Dante Club! Polish edition published April 2005 now a bestseller. (4/05)

The Dante Club rated one of the top four bestselling novels in translation in Mexico for 2004. (2/05)

The Dante Club is chosen by El Tiempo cultural editor Andrés Zambrano as one of the best books published in Columbia for the year. List published in Babelia, literary supplement of El Pais. (1/1/05)

In USA Today's "2004's Great Reads" The Dante Club is ranked as one of the Top Bestselling Books of the Year (top 80) (12/04)

Borders chooses The Dante Club as one of the best of 2004 paperback fiction. (12/04)

The Dante Club is ranked as one of the Top Bestselling Books of 2004 by the Washington Post/Neilsen (top 100). (12/04)

The Dante Club has been published in France and French Canada as LE CERCLE DE DANTE from Robert Laffont Editions and has entered a second printing and the French bestseller lists. See publisher webpage. Matthew Pearl visited Paris in October for promotion. (11/04)

The Dante Club longlisted for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. (11/04)

The Dante Club shortlisted for the 2004 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in the UK. (9/04)

THE DANTE CLUB's Italian edition, from Rizzoli, is short-listed for the Premio Scanno, a prestigious Italian literary award. (8/04)

#1 Spanish bestseller! The Dante Club's Spanish edition, from Seix Barral, becomes a #1 BESTSELLER IN SPAIN! Reaches its fifth printing in one month and hits the bestseller lists. Check out the terrific Spanish minisite for "EL CLUB DANTE" by clicking here. (turn on your audio for the intro!) (7/04)

THE DANTE CLUB's Italian edition, from Rizzoli, receives the honorable mention for for the Premio Internazionale Ostia, a prestigious Italian literary award. (7/04)

Greek bestseller! THE DANTE CLUB's Greek edition, from Livanis, hits the Greek bestseller lists. (6/04)

International Bestseller! The novel hits the UK bestseller charts. Read The Observer's great review, and check out the TLS and other additions to our reviews page. The Italian version of the novel has entered an eighth printing, also reaching the bestseller charts. Read more at the novel's Italian website and Virgilio.it's feature. (2/04)

Recommendations

Click here to see some recommendations by Matthew Pearl that have appeared in print or online.

There are plenty of Charles Dickens-related locales around the world. The Charles Dickens Museum in London is a must-see on that front, and their website is filled with interesting information. Dickens fans in Boston might want to stop in at the Omni Parker House downtown, where Dickens set up headquarters of sort while touring the United States. On the mezzanine, find the mirror that was in Charles Dickens's room, with which he practiced his readings.

For those interested in learning more about Edgar Allan Poe, a great place to start is the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore website. The site contains not only Poe's stories and poems, but also scholarly documents including his letters and letters written to Poe. The Knowing Poe website is a visually stunning exploration of Poe's life ideal for students. Those with an interest in Poe should consider joining the Poe Studies Association, and receiving the Edgar Allan Poe Review and the Poe Studies journal.

There are numerous Poe-related sites to visit around the United States. Some of these sites feature prominently in The Poe Shadow, including in Baltimore, where visitors can find Poe's gravesite and Poe's Baltimore home. Elsewhere, don't miss the Poe house in Philadelphia, the Poe cottage in New York, the Poe room at the University of Virginia, and the terrific Poe Museum of Richmond (which also has a wonderfully rich website). The Poe birthplace commemorative plaque is in Boston on Boylston Street between Tremont and Charles streets. While in New York on a Poe tour, also check out the very fun Edgar's cafe at 84th & Broadway (also called "Edgar Allan Poe street"), a Poe themed restaurant.

Want to learn more about the setting of The Dante Club? Check out the Longfellow National Historic Site on Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tours by expert guides run frequently and include the rooms in which the Dante Club met for their translation sessions and dined afterwards until late into the night.

Also stop in at the web headquarters of the Dante Society of America, the oldest continuous organization in the world devoted to Dante studies — and an outgrowth of the original Dante Club.

The Special Collections at Lehigh University currently presents an exhibit entitled "A Dante Club Reunion," a display of first editions and early texts of the members of the Dante Club. Visit the online exhibit here.

All original materials. © Matthew Pearl. Author photos by Sigrid Estrada. Website designed by Chris Costello.