Excerpt from a John Hodgman fake history book--

Philadelphia was one of the 13 East Coast cities called “home” by
Edgar Allen Poe, and it was here that he hosted the first of his many
Christmas Literary Extravaganzas. Held in 1839, it was, by contemporary
accounts, a grand affair, involving feats of literary memorization and
drunken sword canery, and a chorus line of murderous orangutans. Poe
was dressed as Santa Claus, but at this point in his career this was
hardly unusual. After reciting Tamerlane, he famously brought out his
child bride Virginia and seated her on his lap. What would you like
from Santa this year, he asked. And she replied “the modern detective
story.” And so he invented then and there, writing The Murders in the
Rue Morgue using only a checkers board, a bottle of brandy, a map of
Paris. At this point, the Police chased Poe back to Baltimore.