Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his tales of the macabre and mysterious. He is said to have invented the detective fiction genre.

Edgar Poe was born in Boston and within two years of his birth, his parents - both actors - had died. He was taken in by John Allan, who never legally adopted him, and with whom he had a dubious relationship.

Poe was forced to withdraw from the University of Virginia because Allan refused to finance him but later they reconciled and Poe entered the Military Academy at West Point. He was dishonourably discharged and although he started writing at a young age, his work went unnoticed. He worked as an editor in Richmond, Philedelphia (he was discharged from this job after being found drunk) and New York to earn a living and fund his true passion.

During this time, he married his cousin Virginia Clemm who was only 14. She contracted tuberculosis and died in 1847. He was respected as a literary critic but it wasn’t until 1845 that he became successful as a writer. Since then he has been described as one of the most brilliant and original writers known to American literature and his work has been described as mysterious, dreamlike, and macabre.

Of Edgar’s many achievements, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is one of the most memorable chiefly because it is regarded as the first modern detective story. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) a collection of stories he wrote for magazines and The Raven (poem) are also very well known. His stories have been described as weird and fantastic, dwelling by choice on the horrible.

Poe became ill after his wife’s death and died in Baltimore, on October 7, 1849. It is thought that his addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs contributed to his early death, aged only 40.