Stories of Horror to Spark Fear This Halloween By Debralee Mede

ponsuwan; freedigitalphotos.net

It is that time of year again: time for nights of fright, the macabre and the ghostly.  Or is it time for a few ghostly authors?  How about reading a little Edgar Allan Poe this Halloween?   How about reading stories or poems written by a struggling author with a penchant for delving into and writing about morose and ghastly subjects; an author whose own life seemed not so dissimilar to the stories he wrote.

Edgar was the second of three children, born in Boston, his father who was educated for law and who married an English actress abandoned his law career, led a stage life wandering about until they both died within a short time of each other.  All three of their children, including the author middle child, were left destitute and were raised separately.  Poe was raised by foster parents, the Allans or Richmond Virginia who were by all accounts of wealth and means.  He was well-educated but after entering the University of Virginia became estranged from his foster parents and their wealth.  He later entered West Point briefly, requested a discharge, and was refused unless Allan, his foster father agreed.  Allan didn't until Poe visited the Allan home paying his respects to Mrs. Allan, whom he cared a great deal about, the day after her death.

Edgar then went to Baltimore where his grandmother lived and raised his elder brother Henry, and who lived with an aunt, Mrs. Clemm, and her daughter, and thirteen year old Virginia, his cousin whom twenty-seven year old he married secretly the same year.  The newlyweds moved to New York City where the author attempted to secure and work one of many jobs as a newspaper editor and manager but lost many of these jobs for one reason or other.

Poe continued to write, publish and win contests for his poems and short stories predominantly works of Gothic fiction and dark romanticism with recurrent themes dealing with questions of death, decomposition, premature burial and reanimation of the dead.  He also popularized satirically horrific tales using irony in order to satirize the genre.  Edgar also wrote some science fiction and since his work catered to the mass market pseudo-scientific elements such as phrenology which was popular at the time were also included.

In 1845, Virginia Clemm died of "consumption" or tuberculous after twelve years of marriage in their house in the Bronx, New York.  Still unstable after his wife's death Poe but unwilling to be alone he courted the poet Sarah Whitman.  After that relationship failed he returned to Baltimore, and began courting Sarah Royster, a childhood sweetheart who he never married because Poe was soon after dating Royster, was found on the streets of Baltimore in a state of delirium and distress and needing assistance.  He was taken to the hospital where he later died in October of 1849.  Although medical records including his death certificate had been destroyed, most report that his death was caused by cerebral inflammation commonly caused by alcoholism though many have speculated diseases such as syphilis, rabies and heart disease.  So more mystery surrounds this author's life and death.

Given his life it isn't any wonder why the writings of this author include frequent themes of the "death of a beautiful woman", as well as characters suffering from a gamut of physical and mental illnesses.  His own life marred by tragedy and lost loves seems to breathe the essential air of horror and loss into the being of his work.  Is it any wonder he writes about the tormented and obsessed who are preoccupied with death and violence? Thought this is the theme that predominates he work is it also any wonder why he is so quoted, why many of his collections have been adapted to television and movies, and why his writing is so passionate and so intense.  This All-Hallows Eve why not read a few of his stories and poems like: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Raven, or even The Fall of the House of Usher and find a bit of literary macabre in your evening.  I know that I will.

Filed under: Debralee Mede, Horror Stories [image error]