27. Poe the Psychic?

Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the short story. He only completed one novel during his life. That novel, named The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, was published in installments in a magazine and then published in its entirety in 1838. Poe intended for his novel to be realistic and gruesome, but he didn’t know just how realistic it would be…

The novel tells the story of four sailors stranded at sea on a lifeboat. Things get so desperate that they decide to sacrifice and eat Parker, the smallest guy in the group. A year after this book was published, an eerily similar real-life event happened. A crew of four seamen was shipwrecked and resorted to cannibalism. They sacrificed the youngest member of the crew, also named Parker. Creepy.