Edgar Allan Poe’s Biography

Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Mystery and Macabre

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Poe is famous for his tales of mystery and the macabre. He was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre.

Early Life

Both Poe’s father and mother were professional actors who died before Poe was three years old. John and Frances Allan raised him as a foster child in Richmond, Virginia. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to a lack of money. He quarreled with Allan over funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was during this time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems titled “Tamerlane and Other Poems” (1827), credited only to “a Bostonian.” With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary reconciliation. Later, failing as an officer’s cadet at West Point and declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, Poe parted ways with John Allan.

A New Life and Marriage

After his early attempts at poetry, Poe turned his attention to prose. He spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move to several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin.

Success and Death

In January 1845, Poe published his poem “The Raven” to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal, “The Penn” (later renamed “The Stylus”), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

Influence

Edgar Allan Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields. He is considered one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction and is credited as the “architect” of the modern short story. As a critic, he was one of the first writers to emphasize the effect of style and structure, thus foreshadowing the “art for art’s sake” movement. Poe is particularly respected in France, in part due to early translations by Charles Baudelaire, whose translations became definitive renditions of Poe’s work throughout Europe.

Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America presents an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.