19. Edgar Allan Poe and the mystery novel
The American master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe was a writer and literary critic who is widely believed to have created the fiction genre of the mystery novel. Mysteries as a form of written entertainment did not emerge until the early 19th century, in part because formal police departments, with investigators who examined crimes, did not exist. Poe wrote mysteries, including his Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), and was an early contributor to the detective story. Poe is credited with the creation of the detective story through his character C. Auguste Dupin, who first appeared in the above-mentioned short story. He was the basis for subsequent fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
But detective fiction is merely a branch of the genre which includes the mystery novel, and while Poe was an early contributor he did not invent it. Zadig, an eighteenth-century novella written by Voltaire presented a mystery as its central story, and was likely an influence on Poe nearly a century later. In 1819 E. T. A. Hoffman produced the novella Mademoiselle de Scuderi, in which the eponymous character attempts to solve a mystery by deciphering clues and making corresponding deductions, though often erroneous. Edgar Allan Poe is nonetheless usually cited as the inventor of the mystery/detective story, and an annual award, the Edgars, are presented to the best in several crime writing categories by the Mystery Writers of America.