1939 Pulp magazine appearance.
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Claude Debussy cited Poe as an influence on his work and wrote an opera (unfinished) based on The Fall of the House of Usher. Ray Bradbury has either featured Poe as a character in many of his stories, or alluded to him. In the film version of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury's novel of a world where books are banned and burned, Montag memorizes Poe's short story collection Tales of Mystery and Imagination to insure it is not lost forever. Poe had an influence on cryptography beyond public interest. Army cryptologist William Friedman, greatly influenced by Poe, ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s. Friedman's interest in cryptography arose from reading The Gold-Bug as a child; he later put Poe's method to use in deciphering Japan's PURPLE code during World War II. Among the latest many Poe incarnations, is actor John Astin's one-man stage show Edgar Allan Poe: Once Upon a Midnight. Nevermore, a 2005 musical by Matt Connor, book written by Grace Barnes, premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, with lyrics adapted from Poe's writings. Myths beget myths, and Edgar Allan Poe plays the second big role in the reinstatement of myth and pop culture as a central focus of modern life.
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