Edgar Allan Poe

Born

in Boston, Massachusetts, The United States

January 19, 1809

Died

October 07, 1849

Website

http://www.poemuseum.org

Genre

Horror, Poetry, Mystery

Influences

James Hogg, Thomas de Quincey, E.T.A. Hoffmann, John Milton, Charles ...more

edit data

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre c The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al... ...more

Combine Editions
Edgar Allan Poe’s books

Average rating: 4.16 · 1,401,886 ratings · 41,509 reviews · 4,448 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings 4.18 avg rating — 227,948 ratings — published 1843 — 71 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Stories and Poems 4.37 avg rating — 235,326 ratings — published 1849 — 350 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Doré (Illustrator) 4.29 avg rating — 110,040 ratings — published 1845 — 1075 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Essential Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV (Editor) 4.36 avg rating — 67,447 ratings — published 1843 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Marlowe (Editor) 4.17 avg rating — 69,775 ratings — published 1849 — 111 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cask of Amontillado 4.09 avg rating — 65,814 ratings — published 1846 — 619 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, Byron Glaser (Illustrator) 4.25 avg rating — 61,289 ratings — published 1843 — 402 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Pit and the Pendulum 4.16 avg rating — 60,569 ratings — published 1842 — 278 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fall of the House of Usher 3.94 avg rating — 47,034 ratings — published 1839 — 1652 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Philip Pullman (Introduction) 4.30 avg rating — 42,717 ratings — published 1845 — 116 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Edgar Allan Poe…

Series by Edgar Allan Poe

C. Auguste Dupin (3 books)
by

Edgar Allan Poe

3.80 avg rating — 52,658 ratings

Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (2 books)
by

Edgar Allan Poe

4.34 avg rating — 4,602 ratings

Samlade noveller (3 books)
by

Edgar Allan Poe,

Erik Carlquist (Översättare),

Maria Löfgren (Efterord)

4.27 avg rating — 616 ratings

An Edgar Allan Poe Short Story (1 book)
by

Edgar Allan Poe

3.12 avg rating — 305 ratings

(An Edgar Allan Poe Short Story) (1 book)
by

Edgar Allan Poe

3.12 avg rating — 305 ratings

More series by Edgar Allan Poe…

"Horror fiction has traditionally dealt in taboo.… It makes monsters of household pets and begs our affection for psychos. It...

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
― Edgar Allan Poe

tags: insanity, sanity

13983 likes

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
― Edgar Allan Poe

tags: dreaming, dreams, perception

10764 likes

“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
― Edgar Allen Poe

tags: logic, love

8893 likes

See all Edgar Allan Poe's quotes »

Polls

If you could meet with one author, who would it be?

J.K. Rowling (write-in)

16 votes 25.4%

John Green

14 votes 22.2%

Cassandra Clare (write-in)

8 votes 12.7%

Edgar Allan Poe

6 votes 9.5%

Shakespeare

6 votes 9.5%

Rainbow Rowell

2 votes 3.2%

Stephen King (write-in)

2 votes 3.2%

Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis, James A. Owen, Edgar Allan Poe

2 votes 3.2%

Suzanne Collins

1 vote 1.6%

James Patterson

1 vote 1.6%

orwell, george

1 vote 1.6%

Daniel Kahneman (write-in)

1 vote 1.6%

Chris Colfer (write-in)

1 vote 1.6%

The Bronte sisters (write-in)

1 vote 1.6%

David Baldacci (write-in)

1 vote 1.6%

Donna Tartt

0 votes 0.0%

63 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
KCPL: Your Favorite Book Ever!!!	14	367	Jan 22, 2009 04:49AM
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SPRING CHALLENGE - 2009	6412	8864	Jun 14, 2009 02:57PM
The Seasonal Read...: FALL CHALLENGE 2009 PLANS	168	1479	Oct 14, 2009 08:10AM
The Book Challenge: Meghan's Other 2009 Challenges	11	235	Oct 31, 2009 09:58AM
Goodreads Librari...: Misattributed Poe Quote?	8	112	Dec 22, 2009 04:20PM
The Book Challenge: Kuutar's challenges 2009	26	157	Dec 30, 2009 08:45AM
Witches, Weres, a...: March Member Choice - Submit your book of choice now	13	60	Feb 20, 2010 06:06PM
Romance Readers R...: 2010 February Monthly Challenge: Participants' Lists Thread	396	444	Mar 10, 2010 12:46PM

More…

Edgar Allan Poe’s Followers (21,582)

Add New
Videos

Edgar Allan Poe

Combine Editions
Edgar Allan Poe’s books

Series by Edgar Allan Poe

Related News

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Edgar Allan Poe’s Followers (21,582)

Add NewVideos

Edgar Allan Poe

Combine EditionsEdgar Allan Poe’s books

Series by Edgar Allan Poe

Related News

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

Combine Editions
Edgar Allan Poe’s books