Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849
Author of this webpage: Renée Goodvin

Born January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, Edgar Allan Poe was a Romantic American poet, critic, and short story writer whose name has become synonymous with mystery, horror, and the macabre in fiction.

In 1811, when Poe was only two years old, his parents died; leaving him to be raised by John Allan, a Richmond, Virginia merchant. Eventually, Poe attended the University of Virginia for a short time. In 1827, he published a pamphlet in Boston that contained "youthful Byronic poems," as well as his poem "Tamerlane." Then, in 1833, he won $50 from a Baltimore, Maryland weekly for his short story, Ms. Found in a Bottle.

In 1835, Poe became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia. This was the first of several periodicals that Poe wrote for and/or edited. In addition to his editor's position, it was also in 1835 that Poe married his 13 year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. Then in 1839, Poe became co-editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Poe produced some of his best-known writings of supernatural horror while he was co-editor there (1839-1842). In 1845, while part of the staff at the Evening Mirror, (New York) Poe published "The Raven."

On October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland, Edgar Allan Poe died. No real knowledge of Poe's death is known. To this day there are many theories, but in essence, it remains a mystery.

Notes about Poe's writings:

Poe's writings are difficult to characterize because of the duality of the writer himself. Like most Romantics, Poe was an idealist and a visionary with a flair for close observation of minute detail. In addition, Poe's great sensitivity towards women inspired some of his most touching lyrics, e.g. "Annabel Lee." Yet, as one of the first writers of modern detective stories and science fiction, Poe was a writer haunted by eerie thoughts, impulses, and fears that he turned into startling tales of death, wickedness, crime, and survival.

The information for Edgar Allan Poe's biography was adapted from Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.

A Selective Edgar Allan Poe Timeline:

1827 - "Tamerlane"

1833 - Ms. Found in a Bottle

1838 - Ligeia

1839 - The Fall of the House of Usher

1841 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue

1842 - The Mask of Red Death; The Pit and the Pendulum

1843 - The Tell-Tale Heart; The Black Cat

1844 - The Oblong Box

1845 - "The Raven"

1846 - The Cask of Amontillado

1849 - "Eldorado"; "Annabel Lee"

Edgar Allan Poe Links:

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore

One of the most comprehensive Edgar Allan Poe sites on the web.

EAP - Quotations

Quotations by Edgar Allan Poe from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10^th ed. (1919) Brought to you by bartleby.com.

Poe - Criticism

Edgar Allan Poe Criticism from the Internet Public Library.

The Collected Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe

A collection of short verse by the nineteenth-century American poet. Brought to you by EServer.org.

"Poe," by Killis Campbell, Ph.D., former Professor of English at the University of Texas

An essay about Poe from Volume 16 of The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907-21).

---

Home | Blog | email

© 1998 - 2004 blondelibrarian.net
Last updated August 8, 2006