Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.
Easton Press Edgar Allan Poe books
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - 1957Le Corbeau The Raven
Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Horror Classics - 2003
The Complete Tales of Edgar Allan Poe - 2007
Franklin Library Edgar Allan Poe books
Tales - 100 Greatest Books of All Time - 1974The Descent into Maelstrom and Other Stories - World's Greatest Writers - 1983
Collected Poems - World's Best Loved Books - 1983
Tell Tale Heart and other Stories - 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature - 1984
Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Library of Mystery Masterpieces - 1987
Writer Edgar Allan Poe
Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of actress Elizabeth Poe and actor David Poe, Jr. His father left before he was born, and his mother died when he was only three, so Poe was taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant in Richmond, Virginia and baptized Edgar Allan Poe. (While his middle name is frequently misspelled as 'Allen', Poe himself used 'Allan'.) After attending Manor School in Stoke Newington, London, (UK), Poe moved to Richmond, Virginia. Poe registered at the University of Virginia, and only stayed there for one year. He was estranged from his adopted father at some point in this period, and so Poe enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private using the name Edgar A. Perry on May 26, 1827. That same year, he released his first book, Tamarlane and Other Poems. After serving for two years and attaining the rank of Sergeant-major, Poe was discharged. In 1829 he published his second book, Al Aaraf. At around this time, he was reconciled with Allan, and through him received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His time at West Point was ill-fated, as Poe apparently deliberately disobeyed orders and was dismissed. After that, his adoptive father repudiated him until his death in March 27,1843.Poe next moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia. Poe used fiction writing as a means of supporting himself, and with the December issue of 1835, Poe began editing the Southern Literary Messenger for Thomas W. White in Richmond. This position was held by Poe until January, 1837. During this time, Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, in Richmond on May 16, 1836.
After spending fifteen fruitless months in New York, Poe moved to Philadelphia. Shortly after he arrived, his novella The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was published and widely reviewed. In the summer of 1839, he became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He published a large number of articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing the reputation as a trenchant critic that he had established at the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes. Though not a financial success, it was a milestone in the history of American literature. Poe left Burton's after about a year and found a position as assistant editor at Graham's Magazine.
Publishing career
Reinstated by White after promising good behavior, Poe went back to Richmond with Virginia and her mother, and remained at the paper until January 1837. During this period, its circulation increased from 700 to 3500. He published several poems, book reviews, criticism, and stories in the paper. On May 16, 1836, he entered into marriage in Richmond with Virginia Clemm, this time in public.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was published and widely reviewed in 1838. In the summer of 1839, Poe became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He published a large number of articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing the reputation as a trenchant critic that he had established at the Southern Literary Messenger. Also in 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes. Though not a financial success, it was a milestone in the history of American literature, collecting such classic Poe tales as "The Fall of the House of Usher", "MS. Found in a Bottle", "Berenice", "Ligeia" and "William Wilson". Poe left Burton's after about a year and found a position as assistant at Graham's Magazine.
In June 1840, Poe published a prospectus announcing his intentions to start his own journal, The Stylus. Originally, Poe intended to call the journal The Penn, as it would have been based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the June 6, 1840 issue of Philadelphia's Saturday Evening Post, Poe purchased advertising space for his prospectus: "PROSPECTUS OF THE PENN MAGAZINE, A MONTHLY LITERARY JOURNAL, TO BE EDITED AND PUBLISHED IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, BY EDGAR A. POE." The journal would never be produced.
The evening of January 20, 1842, Virginia broke a blood vessel while singing and playing the piano. Blood began to rush forth from her mouth. It was the first sign of consumption, now more commonly known as tuberculosis. She only partially recovered. Poe began to drink more heavily under the stress of Virginia's illness. He left Graham's and attempted to find a new position, for a time angling for a government post. He returned to New York, where he worked briefly at the Evening Mirror before becoming editor of the Broadway Journal and, later, sole owner. There he became involved in a noisy public feud with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. On January 29, 1845, his poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror and became a popular sensation.
The Broadway Journal failed in 1846. Poe moved to a cottage in the Fordham section of The Bronx, New York. He loved the Jesuits at Fordham University and frequently strolled about its campus conversing with both students and faculty. Fordham University's bell tower even inspired him to write "The Bells." The Poe Cottage is on the southeast corner of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road, and is open to the public. Virginia died there on January 30, 1847.
Increasingly unstable after his wife's death, Poe attempted to court the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who lived in Providence, Rhode Island. Their engagement failed, purportedly because of Poe's drinking and erratic behavior. However, there is also strong evidence that Miss Whitman's mother intervened and did much to derail their relationship. He then returned to Richmond and resumed a relationship with a childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.
Literary and artistic theory
In his essay "The Poetic Principle", Poe would argue that there is no such thing as a long poem, since the ultimate purpose of art is aesthetic, that is, its purpose is the effect it has on its audience, and this effect can only be maintained for a brief period of time (the time it takes to read a lyric poem, or watch a drama performed, or view a painting, etc.). He argued that an epic, if it has any value at all, must be actually a series of smaller pieces, each geared towards a single effect or sentiment, which "elevates the soul".Poe associated the aesthetic aspect of art with pure ideality claiming that the mood or sentiment created by a work of art elevates the soul, and is thus a spiritual experience. In many of his short stories, artistically inclined characters (especially Roderick Usher from "The Fall of the House of Usher") are able to achieve this ideal aesthetic through fixation, and often exhibit obsessive personalities and reclusive tendencies. "The Oval Portrait" also examines fixation, but in this case the object of fixation is itself a work of art.
He championed art for art's sake (before the term itself was coined). He was consequentially an opponent of didacticism, arguing in his literary criticisms that the role of moral or ethical instruction lies outside the realm of poetry and art, which should only focus on the production of a beautiful work of art. He criticized James Russell Lowell in a review for being excessively didactic and moralistic in his writings, and argued often that a poem should be written "for a poem's sake". Since a poem's purpose is to convey a single aesthetic experience, Poe argues in his literary theory essay "The Philosophy of Composition", the ending should be written first. Poe's inspiration for this theory was Charles Dickens, who wrote to Poe in a letter dated March 6, 1842, Apropos of the "construction" of "Caleb Williams," do you know that Godwin wrote it backwards, — the last volume first, — and that when he had produced the hunting down of Caleb, and the catastrophe, he waited for months, casting about for a means of accounting for what he had done?
Poe refers to the letter in his essay. Dickens's literary influence on Poe can also be seen in Poe's short story "The Man of the Crowd." Its depictions of urban blight owe much to Dickens and in many places purposefully echo Dickens's language.
He was a proponent and supporter of magazine literature, and felt that short stories, or "tales" as they were called in the early nineteenth century, which were usually considered "vulgar" or "low art" along with the magazines that published them, were legitimate art forms on par with the novel or epic poem. His insistence on the artistic value of the short story was influential in the short story's rise to prominence in later generations.
Poe often included elements of popular pseudosciences such as phrenology and physiognomy in his fiction.
Poe also focused the theme of each of his short stories on one human characteristic. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", he focused on guilt, in "The Fall of the House of Usher", his focus was fear, etc.
Much of Poe's work was allegorical, but his position on allegory was a nuanced one: "In defence of allegory, (however, or for whatever object, employed,) there is scarcely one respectable word to be said. Its best appeals are made to the fancy — that is to say, to our sense of adaptation, not of matters proper, but of matters improper for the purpose, of the real with the unreal; having never more of intelligible connection than has something with nothing, never half so much of effective affinity as has the substance for the shadow."
Death
On
October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious
and "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance,"
according to the man who found him. He was taken to the Washington
College Hospital, where he died early on the morning of October 7. Poe
was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire
condition, and wearing clothes that were not his own. Some sources say
Poe's final words were "It's all over now; write Eddy is no more."
(referring to his tombstone). Others say his last words were "Lord, help
my poor soul."The precise cause of Poe's death is disputed. Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, an acquaintance of Poe who was among those who saw him in his last days, was convinced that Poe's death was a result of drunkenness, and did a great deal to popularize this interpretation of the events. He was, however, a supporter of the temperance movement who found Poe a useful example in his work; later scholars have shown that his account of Poe's death distorts facts to support his theory.
Dr. John Moran, the physician who attended Poe, stated in his own 1885 account that "Edgar Allan Poe did not die under the effect of any intoxicant, nor was the smell of liquor upon his breath or person." This was, however, only one of several sometimes contradictory accounts of Poe's last days he published over the years, so his testimony cannot be considered entirely reliable.
Numerous other theories have been proposed over the years, including several forms of rare brain disease, diabetes, various types of enzyme deficiency, syphilis, the idea that Poe was shanghaied, drugged, and used as a pawn in a ballot-box-stuffing scam during the election that was held on the day he was found, and more recently, rabies (though some consider this unlikely).
In the absence of contemporary documentation (all surviving accounts are either incomplete or published years after the event; even Poe's death certificate, if one was ever made out, has been lost), it is likely that the truth of Poe's death will never be known. No other major American writer in the nineteenth century except Sidney Lanier and Stephen Crane lived a shorter life span.
Poe is buried on the grounds of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, now part of the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore.
Even after death, however, Poe has created controversy and mystery. Because of his fame, school children collected money for a new burial spot closer to the front gate. He was reburied on October 1, 1875. A celebration was held at the dedication of the new tomb on November 17, 1875. Likely unknown to the reburial crew, however, the headstones on all the graves, previously facing to the east, were turned to face the West Gate in 1864. Therefore, as it was described in a seemingly fitting turn of events:
In digging on what they erroneously thought to be the right of the General [Poe] the committee naturally first struck old Mrs. Poe who had been buried thirty-six years before Edgar's mother-in-law; they tried again and presumably struck Mrs. Clemm who had been buried in 1876 only four years earlier. Henry's [Poe's brother] foot stone, it there, was respected for they obviously skipped over him and settled for the next body, which was on the Mosher lot. Because of the excellent condition of the teeth, he would certainly seem to have been the remains of Philip Mosher Jr, of the Maryland Militia, age 19.
Since Poe's death, his grave site has become a popular tourist attraction. Beginning in 1949, the grave has been visited every year by a mystery man, known endearingly as the Poe Toaster, in the early hours of Poe's birthday, January 19th. It has been reported that a man draped in black with a silver-tipped cane, kneels at the grave for a toast of Martel cognac and leaves the half-full bottle and three red roses.
Griswold's "Memoir"
The
day Edgar Allan Poe was buried, a long obituary appeared in the New
York Tribune signed "Ludwig" which was soon published throughout the
country. The piece began, "Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore
the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few
will be grieved by it." "Ludwig" was soon identified as Rufus Wilmot
Griswold, a minor editor and anthologist who had borne a grudge against
Poe since 1842. Griswold somehow became executor of Poe's literary
estate and attempted to destroy his enemy's reputation after his death.Rufus Griswold wrote a biographical "Memoir" of Poe, which he included in an 1850 volume of the collected works. Griswold depicted Poe as a depraved, drunk, drug-addled madman and included forged letters as evidence. Griswold's book was denounced by those who knew Poe well, but it became a popularly accepted one. This was due in part because it was the only full biography available and was widely reprinted, and in part because it seemed to accord with the narrative voice Poe used in much of his fiction.
The Poe Toaster
Adding to the mystery surrounding Poe's death, an unknown visitor affectionately referred to as the "Poe Toaster" has paid homage to Poe's grave every year since 1949. Though likely to have been several individuals in the more than 50 year history of this tradition, the tribute is always the same. Every January 19 in the early hours of the morning the man makes a toast of cognac to Poe's original grave marker and leaves three roses. Members of the Edgar Allan Poe Society in Baltimore have helped in protecting this tradition for decades. Edgar Allan Poe poems
Poetry - 1824
O, Tempora! O, Mores! - 1825 (Not authenticated as by Poe)
Tamerlane - 1827
Song - 1827
Imitation - 1827
A Dream - July 1827
The Lake - July 1827
Spirits of the Dead - July 1827
Evening Star - July 1827
Dreams - July 1827
Stanzas - July 1827
The Happiest Day - 1827
To Margaret - 1827
Alone - 1829
To Isaac Lea - 1829
To The River —— - 1829
To —— - 1829 (Begins "The bowers whereat, in dreams...")
To —— - 1829 (Begins "Should my early life seem...")
Romance - 1829
Fairy-Land - 1829
To Science - 1829
Al Aaraaf - 1829
An Acrostic - 1829
Elizabeth - 1829
To Helen - 1831
A Paean - 1831
The Sleeper - 1831
The City in the Sea - 1831
The Valley of Unrest - 1831
Israfel - 1831
Enigma - 1833
Fanny - 1833
The Coliseum - 1833
Serenade - 1833
To One in Paradise - 1834
Hymn - 1835
To Elizabeth - 1835 (Republished as "To F——s S. O——d" in 1845)
May Queen Ode - 1836
Spiritual Song - 1836
Latin Hymn - 1836
Bridal Ballad - 1837 (Originally published as "Ballad")
To Zante - 1837
The Haunted Palace - 1839
Silence–A Sonnet - 1840
Lines on Joe Locke - 1843
The Conqueror Worm - 1843
Lenore - 1843
A Campaign Song - 1844
Dream-Land - 1844
Impromptu. To Kate Carol - 1845
To F—— - 1845 (Republished as "To Frances" in the September 6, 1845)
Eulalie - 1845
Epigram for Wall Street - 1845
The Raven - 1845
The Divine Right of Kings - 1845
A Valentine - 1846 (Originally published as "To Her Whose Name Is Written Below")
Beloved Physician - 1847
Deep in Earth - 1847
To M. L. S—— - 1847
Ulalume - 1847
Lines on Ale - 1848
To Marie Louise - 1848
An Enigma - 1848
To Helen - 1848
A Dream Within A Dream - 1849
Eldorado - 1849
For Annie - 1849
To My Mother - 1849
Annabel Lee - 1849
The Bells - 1849
Edgar Allan Poe tales
Metzengerstein - 1832 (subtitle "A Tale in Imitation of the German")
The Duc De L'Omelette - 1832 (Originally "The Duke of l'Omelette")
A Tale of Jerusalem - 1832
Loss of Breath - 1832 (Originally "A Decided Loss")
Bon-Bon - 1832 (Originally "The Bargain Lost")
MS. Found in a Bottle - 1833
The Assignation - 1834 (Originally "The Visionary")
Berenice - 1835
Morella - 1835
Lionizing - 1835 (Subtitle: "A Tale")
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall - 1835
King Pest - 1835 (Originally "King Pest the First")
Shadow - A Parable - 1835
Four Beasts in One - The Homo-Cameleopard - 1836 (Originally "Epimanes")
Mystification - 1837 (Originally "Von Jung, the Mystific")
Silence - A Fable - 1838 (Originally "Siope - A Fable")
Ligeia - 1838 (Republished in the February 15, 1845 issue of the New York World, included the poem "The Conqueror Worm" as words written by Ligeia on her death-bed)
How to Write a Blackwood Article - 1838
A Predicament - 1838 (Companion to "How to Write A Blackwood Article," originally "The Scythe of Time")
The Devil in the Belfry - 1839
The Man That Was Used Up - 1839
The Fall of the House of Usher - 1839
William Wilson - 1839
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion - 1839
Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling - 1840
The Business Man - 1840 (Originally "Peter Pendulum")
The Man of the Crowd - 1840
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 1841
A Descent into the Maelström - 1841
The Island of the Fay - 1841
The Colloquy of Monos and Una - 1841
Never Bet the Devil Your Head - 1841 (Subtitled "A Tale with a Moral")
Eleonora - 1841
Three Sundays in a Week - 1841 (Originally "A Succession of Sundays")
The Oval Portrait - 1842 (Originally "Life in Death")
The Masque of the Red Death - 1842 (Originally "The Mask of the Red Death")
The Landscape Garden - 1842 (Later incorporated into "The Domain of Arnheim")
The Mystery of Marie Roget - 1842 (Originally subtitled "A Sequel to 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'")
The Pit and the Pendulum - 1842–1843
The Tell-Tale Heart - 1843
The Gold-Bug - 1843
The Black Cat - 1843
Diddling - 1843 (Originally "Raising the Wind; or, Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences")
The Spectacles - 1844
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - 1844
The Premature Burial - 1844
Mesmeric Revelation - 1844
The Oblong Box - 1844
The Angel of the Odd - 1844
Thou Art the Man - 1844
The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq. - 1844
The Purloined Letter - 1844–1845
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade - 1845 (Meant as a sequel to One Thousand and One Nights)
Some Words with a Mummy - 1845
The Power of Words - 1845
The Imp of the Perverse - 1845
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether - 1845
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - 1845 (Originally "The Facts of M. Valdemar's Case")
The Sphinx - 1846
The Cask of Amontillado - 1846
The Domain of Arnheim - 1847 (Expansion of previous story "The Landscape Garden")
Mellonta Tauta - 1849
Hop-Frog - 1849
Von Kempelen and His Discovery - 1849
X-ing a Paragrab - 1849
Landor's Cottage - 1849
Edgar Allan Poe books
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket 1837 – 1838
The Journal of Julius Rodman 1840
Edgar Allan Poe essays
Maelzel's Chess Player - 1836
The Philosophy of Furniture - 1840
A Few Words on Secret Writing - 1841
Morning on the Wissahiccon - 1844
The Balloon-Hoax - 1844
The Philosophy of Composition - 1846
Eureka: A Prose Poem - 1848
The Rationale of Verse - 1848
The Poetic Principle - 1848
Edgar Allan Poe plays
Politian - 1836
Other works
The Conchologist's First Book - 1839 (A textbook on sea shells to which Poe lent his name as author, though he did not write it)
The Light-House - 1849
Collections
Tamerlane and Other Poems - 1827
Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems - 1829
Poems - 1831
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque - 1839
The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe - 1843
Tales - 1845
The Raven and Other Poems - 1845
Source and additional information: Edgar Allan Poe