Edgar Allan Poe Biography, Famous for The Raven

Jul 5, 2010
Tel Asiado

Edgar Allan Poe, Horror Short-Story Writer, Poe - Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Life and poetry of American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, best known for his eerie poems and the story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

A pioneer of crime and mystery writing, Edgar Allan Poe was an influential 19th-century American horror writer. He is famous for his spooky stories including his famous story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and poetry, including the “The Raven.”

The Turbulent Early Life of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Both of his parents died before he was three years old, and he was adopted by a wealthy tobacco merchant from Richmond, Virginia. Poe never felt settled into his new family, and his bad behavior brought him conflict with his adopted father, who also disapproved of him spending more time writing poetry than studying.

In 1827, Poe left the University of Virginia, where he had had developed gambling debts. Four years later, he was expelled from West Point Military Academy. His adopted father had had enough and disowned him. Poe had to live with an aunt in Baltimore.

Poe’s Literary Success

Venturing as a poet, short story writer and as literary critic, at the age of 24, Poe experienced his first literary success when his short story “Manuscript Found in a Bottle” won a cash prize. He began working for magazines, but his unpredictable behavior and heavy drinking often got him into trouble. He was fired from work. The stories and poem he produced, however, began to make him famous and were published in the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque when he was 31 years old.

In the same year, Poe went to work for Graham’s Magazine, which published his famous story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” It became so popular that many scholars called it the world’s first modern detective story. About this time, he also got married to Virginia Clemm, a 13 year old cousin.

Poe’s Obsession with the Supernatural and Death

Edgar Allan Poe was obsessed with the elements of fear and death, and the supernatural. His works depicted these elements, and Poe became the pioneer of the modern genre of horror, crime and mystery writing. His poem “The Raven” became very popular.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Last Years and Literary Legacy

After his wife died of tuberculosis, Poe’s depression worsened and he drank heavily. He died at the young age of 40, on October 7, 1849. However, his poetry and short stories have influenced many future crime and horror writers.

Dostoevsky acknowledged his own debt to Poe and Baudelaire produced French translations of Poe’s works. Although he became famous for stories of bleakness, he also wrote of poetry’s purity in such famous poems as “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee.”