Steven Leech

Valdemar's Corpse, third edition Steven Leech

"Valdemar's Corpse" is the story of literary work from those who lived in Delaware since the early 19th century, and those close enough to be only separated by the short porous arc of its northern border. Using standard exposition, literary reviews from others, fictional portrayal, and the actual words from the literary artists themselves, in "Valdemar's Corpse" is the story of a body of work declared dead by local academia. Beyond this imposed death of Delaware's literary legacy speaks those who have shared influences as well as those who had personally interacted with the likes of Poe, Mark Twain, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Hart Crane, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson and others. In "Valdemar's Corpse" the story of Delaware's literary legacy is allowed here to speak, however briefly, from its academically imposed deathbed before returning to cultural amnesia.