Did Edgar Allan Poe Write a Werewolf Story?

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) wrote scary stories in a number of supernatural genres. He did not invent the horror short story, but he took it to unbelievable heights as he did with science fiction stories. Poe penned ghost stories, too. He was the first to invent a closed room murder mystery (The Murders in the Rue Morgue of 1841) and a founding father of science fiction short stories. Poe also was the first to take us inside the head of a crazy man in The Tell-Tale Heart of 1843.

Yet Edgar Allan Poe failed to cover a few crucial genres in his short stories. For instance, he did not write a vampire or monster story. I have blogged on the former in the past. That is unfortunate as I am convinced that no one could have written a vampire story like Poe.

Unfortunately, Poe also did not write a werewolf story. Below is a list of werewolf stories originally published in the English language during Poe's lifetime, some of which he may have read. They are found in Transformation: The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849

1831 The Man-Wolf by Leitch Ritche (1800-1865)

1846 A Story of a Weir-Wolf by Catherine Crowe (1790-1872)

1828 The Wehr-Wolf: A Legend of the Limousin by Richard Thomson (1794-1865)

1839 The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains by Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)

1838 Hugues the Wer-Wolf: A Kentish Legend of the Middle Ages by Sutherland Menzies [Mrs. Elizabeth Stone] (1806-1883)

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