The Journal of Julius Rodman is an unfinished serial novel by American author Edgar Allan Poe published in 1840. It is a fictionalised account of the first expedition across the Western Wilderness, crossing the Rocky Mountains. The journal chronicled a 1792 expedition led by Julius Rodman up the Missouri River to the Northwest. This extraordinary Journal details events of the most surprising nature, and recounts the unparalleled vicissitudes and adventures experienced by a mere handful of men in a country which, till then, had never been explored by civilized man. Julius Rodman was an English emigrant who first settled in New York, then moved to Kentucky and Mississippi. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor. Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction.