Photo Courtesy of PBS

Monday, October 30, 2017, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

After his death, writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) became a global icon of modern literature and a pop culture brand. Best known for his Gothic horror tales and narrative poem “The Raven,” Poe’s stories are the basis of countless films and TV episodes, and have inspired even more, as has his name and image. At least four American cities claim this literary legend as their own – Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia and New York: an NFL football team is named after one of his poems, and his image appears on everything from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover to lunchboxes, bobbleheads and socks. Creating the detective fiction genre with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), Poe wrote over 100 short stories and poems altogether, beginning with Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), his first published work.

Written and directed by Eric Stange (The War That Made America, American Experience: Murder at Harvard), the new documentary American Masters – Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive draws on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to tell the real story of the notorious author. The film premieres nationwide Monday, October 30 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and will be available to stream the following day, Halloween, via pbs.org/americanmasters and PBS OTT apps.