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POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). The Murders in the Rue Morgue; Descent Into the Maelström; The Island of the Fay in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. (The Casket and Gentleman’s United.) Embracing Every Department of Literature… Volume XVIII [January to June, 1841]. Philadelphia: George R. Graham, 1841. 8vo. Illustrated with steel-engraved frontispiece and 5 engraved (this copy bound without 6 hand-colored fashion plates). iv, 296 pp. Approximately 9 5 / 8 x 5 7 / 8”. Bound in near contemporary half black morocco over marbled boards (rebacked to style in modern black levant morocco, spine lettered in gilt, later endleaves, boards worn with some loss to marbled paper, some wear to corners, binder’s blanks soiled and creased, some occasional soiling, foxing, creasing to text and plates). Very good. THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE FIRST MODERN DETECTIVE STORY, POE’S THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, ALONG WITH TWO OTHER STORIES BY HIM. The Murders in the Rue Morgue appears on pp. 166-179; Descent Into the Maelström appears on pp. 235-241; The Island of the Fay appears on pp. 253-255. Poe’s French detective, C. Auguste Dupin, was the first and the prototype of the literary detective, inspiring such later detectives such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Dupin used observation and deduction in order to solve a gruesome and baffling murder of an old woman and her daughter. In creating this story, Poe invented an entire literary genre - the Mystery/Detective genre (the word “detective” did not even exist while Poe was alive).