Edgar Allan Poe





Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849) was a 19th century
poet, novelist and short story writer. He also worked as a literary critic
and editor but was more successful as an author.

Biography

Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Poe's death

Poe arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 27th of September 1849.

On the 3rd of October, he was found on the streets, "in great distress, &
... 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 the 7th without ever having been coherent long enough to explain
how he came to be in the condition - delirious, and wearing clothes that
were not his own - in which he was found.

The precise cause of his death is disputed.

Dr J. E. Snodgrass, an acquaintance of Poe's 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 popularise this interpretation of the
events. He was, however, a supporter of the temperance movement who found
Poe a useful example in his work; and later scholars have shown that his
account of Poe's death distorts the 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 can not be
considered entirely reliable.

Numerous other theories have been proposed over the years, including several
forms of brain disease, various types of enzyme deficiency, rabies
(generally considered unlikely), and the idea that Poe was shanghaied,
drugged, and used as a pawn in a ballot-box-stuffing scam aimed at an
election that was held on the day he was found.

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.

Legacy

Poe's curious and often nightmarish work greatly influenced the horror and
fantasy genres. He is also credited with having been the principal initiator
of the genre of detective fiction with his three stories about Auguste
Dupin, the most famous of which is "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The
Mystery Writers of America have named their awards for excellence in the
genre the "Edgarssm" (compare with the Oscars etc).

Poe's literary reputation was greater abroad than it was in the United
States, perhaps given to the US's general repulsion to the macabre. Rufus
Griswold became his literary executor; in fact, Griswold was a rival and an
enemy. In the U.S.A., Griswold circulated a "Memoir of the Author" which
portrayed Poe as a drunkard and opium addict. These defamatory
reminisicences did little to commend Poe to U.S. literary society.

In France, where he is commonly known as "Edgar Poe", Charles Baudelaire
translated his stories and several of the poems into French. Baudelaire was
the right man for this job, and his excellent translations meant that Poe
enjoyed a vogue among avant-garde writers in France while being ignored in
his native land. From France, writers like Algernon Charles Swinburne caught
the Poe-bug, and Swinburne's musical verse owes much to Poe's technique. Poe
was much admired, also, by the school of Symbolism, and Stˇphane Mallarmˇ
dedicated several poems to him.

There is no doubt that he inspired mystery writers who came after him,
particularly Arthur Conan Doyle in the Hound of the Baskervilles.

Notable works

Poems

   * "The Raven"
   * "Annabel Lee"
   * "The Bells"
   * "Lenore"
   * "Ulalume"

Stories

   * Auguste Dupin:
        o "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
        o "The Balloon-Hoax"
        o "The Purloined Letter"
        o "The Mystery of Marie Roget"
   * "The Devil in the Belfry"
   * "The Fall of the House of Usher"
   * "The Pit and the Pendulum"
   * "The Black Cat"
   * "The Tell-Tale Heart"
   * "The Masque of the Red Death"
   * "A Descent into the Maelstrom"
   * "The Gold Bug"
   * "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdimar"
   * "The Cask of Amontillado" (see Crime fiction for a discussion)

Novels

   * The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Adaptations

Several of his works were made into movies, notably a series of movies
directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. In 2003, Lou Reed
released a double-CD set based on Poe's writings.