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Edgar Allen Poe 
Edgar Allen Poe by, dave march 15 1999,
Edgar Allen Poe, an America writer, was known as a poet and critic but was most famous as
the master of short stories, particularly tales of the mysterious and the macrabe. The
literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have
continued to be popular and many American and European writers have declared their
artistic debt to him. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned in his early
childhood and was raised by John Allen, a successful business man of Richmond, Virginia.
Taken by the Allen family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private
school. Upon returning to the United States in 1820, he continued to study in private
schools. He attended the University of Virginia for a year, but in 1827 his foster
father, angry by the young man's drinking and gambling, refused to pay his debts and
forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties violently, he quit the job
as a clerk, thus estranging Allen, and went to Boston. There his first book, Tamerlane
and Other Poems (1827), was published anonymously. Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the
United States Army and served a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al
Aaraaf, was published, and he completed a agreement with Allen, who secured him an
appointment to the United States Military Academy. After only a few months at the
Military Academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned
him permanently. Poe's third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following year he
moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her eleven-year-old daughter,
Virginia Clemm. The following year his tale "A MS. Found in a Bottle" won a contest
sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. From 1835 to 1836, Poe was editor of the
Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married his young cousin. Throughout the next
decade, much of which was linked by his wife's long illness, Poe worked as an editor for
several periodicals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in New York City. In 1847 Virginia
died and Poe himself became ill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use
of drugs, recorded by contemporaries, may have contributed to his early death. Poetry and
Essays Among Poe's poetic output, about a dozen poems are exceptional for their perfect
literary construction and for their haunting themes and rhymes. In "The Raven" (1845),
for example, the narrator is astounded by depressed omens of death. Poe's extraordinary
manipulation of rhythm and sound is particularly evident in "The Bells" (1849), a poem
that seems to echo with the chiming of metallic instruments, and "The Sleeper" (1831),
which reproduces the state of drowsiness. "Lenore" (1831) and "Annabel Lee" (1849) are
verse lamentations on the death of a beautiful young woman. In the course of his
editorial work, Poe functioned largely as a book reviewer and produced significant body
of criticism; his essays were famous for their sarcasm, wit, and exposure of literary
pretension. His evaluations have withstand the test of time and have earned for him a
high place among American literary critics. Poe's theories on the nature of fiction and,
in particular, his writings on the short story have had a lasting influence on American
and European writers. Stories Poe, by his own choice, was a poet, but economic necessity
forced him to turn to the relatively profitable genre of prose. Whether or not Poe
invented the short story, it is certain that he originated the novel of detection.
Perhaps his best-known tale in this genre is "The Gold Bug" (1843), about a search for
buried treasure. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), "The Mystery of Marie Roget"
(1842-1843), and "The Purloined Letter" (1844) are regarded as forefathers of the modern
mystery , or detective, story. Many of Poe's tales are distinguishing by the authors
unusual grotesque inventiveness in addition to his marvelous plot construction. Such
stories include "The Narrative of Arthur Gorden Pym" (1838), noted for its blend of
factual and fantastic material; "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), in which the
piercing gloominess of the character is accented equally with plot and characterization;
"The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842), a exhilarating tale of cruelty and torture; "The
Tell-Tale Heart" (1843), in which a deranged murderer is subconsciously haunted into
confessing hisguilt; and "The Cask of the Amontillado" (1846), an eerie tale of revenge.
THE END 
Bibliography 
Bibliography 1) Edward Wagenknecht "Edgar Allen Poe" Man Behind the Legend. New York:
Oxford University Press. copyright 1963 2) Bookshelf 1998 Encyclopedia. Microsoft
Corporation. copyright and patent 1987-1997.