How Many Short Stories Did Edgar Allan Poe Write?

Among the questions asked at the Big Read kick-off last week end was "How many short stories did he write?" Seemed simple enough. "We'll look it up and get back to you." No problemo!  Ten books, fifteen websites and several long distance phone calls later - and we still do not know the answer with any certainty.
"Almost eighty" it says on page 373 of the official volume of the Big Read. The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore says the number is sixty-nine - counting "both short fiction and novels." This appears to be the most widely published number.
So how many short stories did Edgar Allan write? Only the Poe himself knows for sure.

A Titanic Headline

A group of 4th grade students visited the Local History and Genealogy Room recently and asked to view the Massillon Independent for April 15, 1912 - the day the Titanic sank. The children were shocked and confused to discover the headline "Titanic Crew and Passengers Safe." How could this be? What was going on? This was a great opportunity not only to teach the students how to use microfilm (which they found mysterious and fascinating), but also about how much the pace of information has accelerated over the last 100 years.

February is Black History Month

View the entire program at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/MuseumofAfri

Local History and Genealogy's New (Old) Space

 
Psssst . . . have you seen what they've done to the library??

Underground River in Massillon, Ohio

Let's face it, the world is a unique place. For example, there is an underground river about 200 feet below the Tuscarawas River, in Massillon, Ohio. Yes, there is such a thing. It is the pre-glacial and inter-glacial remnants of the ancient Dover River.

Stout's (1943) Map of the Teays River Stage features the Dover River (p. 50).

An unidentified newspaper article titled, "There's water under Tuscarawas River, but it moves quite slowly" explained that the underground river is a result from "pre-glacial and inter-glacial water movement that eroded a channel into the bedrock (1966). In fact, the Dover River was also responsible for carving out the Cuyahoga Valley (Harris, 2004, 181). The river flowed from Cuyahoga County where it branched out into parts of Summit, Portage, Stark, Carroll, Medina, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Columbiana, and Belmont counties (Stout, 1943, 71).

Over time, the ancient river channel now below the Tuscarawas River became filled with silt, gravel, and sand. These layers of silt, gravel, and sand filling the channel are also known as an "aquifer," which causes the river to move only a "few feet per day" (1966). When the Dover River experiences periods of drought or water pumping from nearby industries the direction of the river could reverse (1966). The river came to an end during the time of the Pleistocene glaciation or Pleistocene Epoch about (2 million - 10,000 years ago) (Stevens, 19991, 15).

To learn more about the Dover River check out these resources.

References

(1966). "There's water under Tuscarawas River, but it moves quite slowly." Massillon Public Library Vertical File: Massillon Water Supply.

Harris, A. G. Tuttle, E., & Tuttle, S. D. (2004). Geology of national parks. (6th Ed). (Vol. 1). USA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from Google Books.

Stevens, W. (1991). Ground water pollution potential of Stark County, Ohio. (Report 6). Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from DNR.

Stout, W., Ver Steeg, K., & Lamb, G. F. (1943). Geological survery of Ohio: Geology of water in Ohio. (Fourth Series, Bulletin 44). Columbus: F. J. Heer Printing Co.