Edgar Allan Poe

Author Code: AEAP

The son of actors, Poe was adopted after the death of his mother in 1811 by John Allan and his wife and the name Allan was added. Spending most of his youth in Virginia, Poe studied in Scotland and England before returning to Virginia in 1820. He attended the University of Virginia but never completed his studies because of indebtedness. Although well-liked and active in sports, Poe was already developing character traits that would influence his later life. He was introspective, brooding and solitary. Poe spent two years in the military (1827-29) and reached the rank of Sergeant-Major. He was recommended for West Point, but decided to embark on his writing career which began with the publication of Tamerlane And Other Poems in 1827. Poe actually spent almost two years at West Point, but was courtmartialed and dismissed for gross derilection of duty in 1831. In March of that year, he published his Poems Second Edition in New York. Poe, who by now had begun writing prose, was an assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger from 1835 until 1838. He became co-editor of the Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia where he wrote The Fall Of The House Of Usher, William Wilson, etc. In 1840, a collection of 24 of his tales was published in two volumes as Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. He joined Graham's Magazine in 1840, and contributed some of his best-known works such as A Descent Into The Maelstrom, The Murders In The Rue Morgue and The Mystery Of Marie Roget. The Gold Bug, published in 1843 won a literary prize, and that year also saw the publication of The Black Cat and the Tell-Tale Heart. Poe spent some time as literary critic to the New York Mirror (1844-45). From 1844 to his death in 1849, Poe produced some of his most memorable poetry, e.g. The Raven, Annabel Lee and Valley Of Unrest. Poe was found near a tavern in Baltimore in 1849 in a state of delerium and died on October 7th, 1849.

Poe is considered to have been the most important American poet before Whitman and a true innovator in American literature. He is credited with inventing the detective novel, and his works of the macabre and horror still bring chills to today's readers.