While we're talking about snails and literature ... When a publishing company wanted to produce a cut-price, popular version of Thomas Wyatt's
Manual of Conchology, they hired Edgar Allan Poe to write it.
The Conchologist's First Book was published in 1839.
The book owed more than a small debt to other texts. In fact, it owed so much of a debt that Poe was accused of plagiarism. (Apparently the publisher had chosen him, an unknown at that time, because he wouldn't be worth suing.)
Despite the controversy, the book was a great success.
(You can read Poe's
other works at the
Poe Society website. Make sure you've got supplies, though, because you'll be there a long time.)
CONCHOLOGIST'S FIRST BOOK: OR, A SYSTEM OF TESTACEOUS MALACOLOGY Arranged expressly for the use of Schools, IN WHICH THE ANIMALS, ACCORDING TO CUVIER, ARE GIVENWITH THE SHELLS, A GREAT NUMBER OF NEW SPECIES ADDED, AND THE WHOLE BROUGHT UP, AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE,
TOTHE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCIENCE.
BY
EDGAR A. POE.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN SHELLS,PRESENTING A CORRECT TYPE OF EACH GENUS. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY HASWELL, BARRINGTON, AND HASWELL, AND FOR SALE BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS IN THEUNITED STATES. 1839.
