Whether you were introduced to Edgar Allan Poe through his short stories or hispoems , a mention of his name is enough to conjure up a sense of eeriness . This early American writer has beencredited withinventing the detective account , pioneering scientific discipline fabrication and , of course , inspire dark fable . He is so look up to that he is the subject of three museum – The Poe Museumin Richmond , Virginia;The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museumin Baltimore ; and theEdgar Allan Poe National Historic Sitein Philadelphia . Many fans of the writer also enjoy visiting his grave atWestminster Hall & Burying Groundin Baltimore .
Along with his long - last literary popularity , Poe was evenly have sex for his literary criticism . And if his life history as a author now seems inevitable , no one would have suspected it at the beginning .
Poe’s Early Life
have in Boston to traveling actors in 1809 , Poe had become an orphan by the years of 3 . Scottish immigrant and tobacco merchantJohn Allanand his wife Francis brought Poe to Richmond and raised him as their foster child . His young Fatherhood expected that Poe would become a businessman like he was , but the boy had other aspirations .
Poe left home to take at the University of Virginia in 1826 without much support from Allan , who provided him with a meager allowance . In an attempt to increase his income , Poe start chance , which led him to debt rather than prosperity . Allan refuse to cover his losses , and Poe drop out of university .
The relationship with his beginner filtrate , Poe unite the U.S. Army , by and by enter the United States Military Academy at West Point . By that meter , he had determine that he would become a writer and published his first book of account , " Tamerlane and Other Poems , " part largely breathe in by Lord Byron . His time at West Point was trim down poor whenhe was kick out , believably not for drink , fighting or nudity , as rumors have had it , but for offence like skip class and chapel service .
Perhaps the ending of his military career was for the best . Poe always knew he was meant to be a author . And he was correct .
Poe the Writer and Critic
After West Point , Poe deliver to Baltimore , got get out out of Allan ’s will when he pass and begin publishing his short story . larn an editorial place with the cartridge holder Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond , Poe contribute literary critique to his acquirement hardening . His reviews were known for their critical and exacting nature , bring in him the moniker " Tomahawk Man . "
But if critic are sometimes accuse of operating from a linear perspective of arrogance , not having done the study themselves , Poe was different , enjoin Paul Voss , associate professor ofEnglishat Georgia State University . He was unlike because he was a writer himself . Indeed , Poe matte it was his tariff to play American writers up to gamey standards , according to theEdgar Allan Poe National Historic Site .
" He was on the leading edge of what it think to be a professional author , " says Voss . " He was a crafter . He put in the sentence . " When Poe was write , American literature was still in its infancy . Poe ’s contemporary included Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne , while Mark Twain was just a adolescent when Poe died . As a writer and magazine editor , Poe campaigned to improve the professing , pushing for good earnings and copyright laws .
At the eld of 27 , he married 13 - yr - old Virginia Clemm , his first cousin . He go on writing , move to New York City and Philadelphia , and struggled financially . His spot improved in 1845 when his poem " The Raven " made him ahousehold name . But two years later , in 1847 , Virginia fail of tuberculosis , and Poe would soon follow her to the grave .
Poe’s Best-known Works
If " The Raven " is Poe ’s best - make out work and the one that catapult him to renown , his shortsighted story " The Cask of Amontillado " tops the leaning as the favorite of many of his fan . It happens to be Voss ’s favorite . He enounce it provides an ideal account for teach the literary technique of satire , and it ’s what he work with him last metre he snuck into Westminster to visit Poe ’s grave after minute .
" The Cask of Amontillado " is a tarradiddle of retaliation for an vague " thousand injury " achieved in the most frightening way . The irony starts with the name of the antagonist , Fortunato , whom the referee reveal to be unlucky in the extreme . Like many of Poe ’s works , it is a story that situates him as one of the best - known Gothic horror writer .
Similarly gruesome tales let in " The Tell - Tale Heart , " another account with a murderous narrator , " The Masque of the Red Death , " about a plague and a prince who ignores it to his risk , and " The Fall of the House of Usher , " a Hellenic Gothic narrative fix in a spooky business firm during a speculative tempest .
In addition to " The Raven , " Poe penned legion poems , such as " The bell , " in which the give-and-take " ring " pop the question the ultimate in onomatopoeia . " The Bell " was put out posthumously , and so was " Annabel Lee , " an emotional telling of the narrator ’s love and loss of a beautiful char .
Set on a whaler , Poe ’s only complete novel " The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket " features a mutiny and " atrocious massacre " as the ship sails for the South Seas . Six instalment of his serial novel " The Journal of Julius Rodman " were published in the Burton ’s Gentlemen ’s Magazine while Poe was an editor , but after he left the publication , he stopped writing it . whodunit lover will flip for Poe ’s Le ChevalierC. Auguste Dupin , who predated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ’s Sherlock Holmes by more than half a hundred .
Ready to dip your toe in Poe ’s greatest hit ? His employment are availableonline in the public domain . " That ’s the dependable way to get to know an author , " says Voss . Information is also available at the various museum websites .
Poe’s Mysterious Death
Many theories have been suggested about his death , ranging from alcohol poisoning to epilepsy to TB . But grant toHistory , another hypothesis posit that Poe fell victim to corrupt politician in Baltimore who snipe men , drugged and disguised them , and take on them to vote repeatedly at various polling places and then left them for idle .
Originally buried in an unmarked tomb in an inauspicious location atWestminster , Poe was moved thanks to Baltimore school children , who raised enough money with their 1875 " centime for Poe " undertaking to realize him a monument and berth at the front of the cemetery . He consist near Virginia and her female parent Maria Poe Clemm , among champion from the American Revolution and War of 1812 , welcoming admirer like Voss . For decades thePoe Toastervisited each year on Poe ’s natal day , Jan. 19 .
Poe’s Legacy
Outside of urge lover of the macabre , Poe ’s work has had a lasting upshot on the literature and pop writing that followed him . The GuardianlistsArthur Conan Doyle , Peter Straub , Jules Verne and Jorge Luis Borges among those who were influenced by the nineteenth - century author andstatesthat he " signalize the beginning of what would become a great Anglo - American literary dialogue . " The master of cinema suspense , none other thanAlfred Hitchcock , has been cite as stating , " It ’s because I liked Edgar Allan Poe ’s stories so much that I get down to make suspense films . "
But he was more than a author , consort to Voss . Poe held the belief that there was no human mystifier that the human mind can make that the human brain can not then solve . He tried to test that possibility in " The Purloined Letter " by bet at the operation of intellect and reasonableness . His was a rational approach even to something as fleshly and visceral as revenge .
" He was kind of an original creative thinker , " tell Voss . Perhaps we have not caught up with him yet . " His blue and eerie stories still go forward to enamor . "
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