-:- Poe Reading List by Katharena -:-

Edgar Allan Poe: Main Page | an Impressive Edgar Allan Poe Poetry Sampler | Thought Provoking Quotes by Poe | Poe's Sumptuous Beauty and Suggestiveness | Edgar Allan Poe : mysterious, dreamlike, and often macabre forces | Poe's Later Life and Mature Works | Edgar Allan Poe : Books and Reviews | Poe had an air of Objectivity and Spontaneity | Poe Admired Originality | Edgar Allan Poe Concerned with Terror and Sadness | Poe's Puzzle a Secret Nevermore | Katharena's Essential Poe, for the Morbidly Curious

Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–49, American poet, short-story writer, and critic, b. Boston. He is acknowledged today as one of the most brilliant and original writers in American literature. His skillfully wrought tales and poems convey with passionate intensity the mysterious, dreamlike, and often macabre forces that pervaded his sensibility. He is also considered the father of the modern detective story.

After the death of his parents, both of whom were actors, by the time he was three years old, Poe was taken into the home of his godfather, John Allan, a wealthy Richmond merchant. The Allans took him to Europe, where he began his education in schools in England and Scotland. Returning to the United States in 1820, he continued his schooling in Richmond and in 1826 entered the Univ. of Virginia. He showed remarkable scholastic ability in classical and romance languages but was forced to leave the university after only eight months because of quarrels with Allan over his gambling debts. Poverty soon forced him to enlist in the army.

Because of the deathbed plea of his foster mother, he achieved an unenthusiastic reconciliation with Allan, which resulted in an honorable discharge from the army and an appointment to West Point in 1830. However, when Allan remarried the following year Poe lost all hope of further assistance from him and was expelled from the Academy for infraction of numerous minor rules. His first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published in 1827. It was followed by two more volumes of verse in 1829 and 1831. None of these early collections attracted critical or popular recognition. Poe went to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Mrs. Maria Clemm, and her daughter Virginia. In 1835, J. P. Kennedy helped him become an editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. He contributed stories, poems, and astute literary criticism, but his drinking lost him the editorship.