Edgar Allen Poe was probably one of my favorite authors to study in school. His life was an enigma. His death, a mystery. Yet his works clearly are the beginnings of new kinds of writings we now know has horror, science fiction, and suspense.
Born to the Poe family in Boston, he abandoned by his father at the age of one. His mother died a year later. He was adopter by John Allen, giving him the name Edgar Allen Poe. His despairs continued as a teenage when he became estranged from Allen over gambling debts. He was also deeply in love with a woman named Sarah Royster who became engaged to another man instead of Poe in 1827.
Around this time, Poe enlisted in the US Army under the name Edgar A. Perry and told them he was 22 when he was actually 18. After being discharged a few years later, Poe began writing poems. Some of these focused on love and loss and many were based on his love affair with his 13 year old cousin. His most famous poem is the dark and erie "The Raven". He also wrote many famous essays focusing on love, loss, sickness, and death such as "The Bells" and "The Cask of Amontillado" about the Bubonic Plague. Many of his later writings were based on the death of his wife Virginia.
Poe died in 1849 in the gutter of a street in Baltimore wearing someone else's clothes. The original speculated cause of death was "congestion of the brain" but today it is believed to have been alcohol related or possibly even deliberate poisoning. His last words were "Lord help my poor soul". Poe's strange, sad life lead to his twisted mind that created the erie, horrific stories and poems that are known today to be some of the greatest in American History.
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