Edgar Allan Poe: A short biography

           Edgar Allan Poe was a poet, author, editor and literary critic.  Many people who read his work will call it dark and macabre; his tales full of mystery and the morbid.  Poe became one of the earlier writers to create short stories.  He added to the science fiction genre of literature, and was also said to have tried to make a living off of writing alone.  Edgar one of the more popular poets and he has had quite an impact on the literary world.  He wrote very well and left a lasting legacy behind.

            Boston, Massachusetts is where the famous poet was born.  At a very young age, Poe’s mother died and he became orphaned, since his father had left the family.  John and Frances Allan took Edgar in, but never officially adopted him.  He went to a school in England from the age of six to the age of eleven and continued his studies in America.  In 1826, Poe attended the University of Virginia but, less than a year later, he had to quit due to a heavy drinking problem and debt.  

            When Poe was a young man, he failed at becoming a cadet at West Point.  He lied about his age so he could get admitted.  He rarely had a job and no one really liked his work during his lifetime.  To this day, no one really knows why Edgar died.  His fiancé said that he left the house with a weak pulse and a small fever, but nothing more serious than that.  Also, Poe was buried in an unmarked grave.  Eventually, they ordered a gravestone, but someone destroyed it on the train trip to the location of the grave. 

            Poe has written poems, tales, and essays.  Poe named the only play he ever wrote “Politician”.  This unfortunate play was never finished.  He mostly wrote poetry and fiction tales.  One of Poe’s tales is called “The Masque of the Red Death” which talks about a certain prince who tries to avoid a dangerous plague.  Edgar usually stuck to his normal dark and mysterious writing style.

            Poe’s early detective stories laid the groundwork for future mystery writers.  “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, ‘Each of Poe's detective stories is a root from which a whole literature has developed. Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it (wikipedia.com)?’”  Poe created this genre and made a whole new path for other, young writers to follow.  Many people around the world today enjoy these novels, thanks to Edgar Allan Poe.

           

Resources:

Edgar Allan Poe.  14 March. 2011.  Wikipedia

15 March. 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_allan_poe#Legacy>

Edgar Allan Poe.  2006.  C.D. Merriman

15 March. 2011 <http://www.online-literature.com/poe/>

Edgar Allan Poe.  2011.  Enotes.com

15 March. 2011 <http://www.enotes.com/authors/edgar-allan-poe>