Edgar Allan Poe

American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, and literary critic best known for his Gothic fiction and mystery stories. He is considered a central figure of Romanticism and early American literature, and is credited as the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Poe’s life and work had a significant impact on the development of literature and various other fields.

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About the Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poewas an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of early American literature. Poe was one of the country’s first successful practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. In addition, he is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of science fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living by writing alone, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career.

Poe was born in Boston. He was the second child of actors David and Elizabeth “Eliza” Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when Eliza died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he lived with them well into young adulthood. Poe attended the University of Virginia, but left after only a year due to a lack of money. He frequently quarreled with John Allan over the funds needed to continue his education as well as his gambling debts. In 1827, having enlisted in the United States Army under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, which was credited only to “a Bostonian”. Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan’s wife Frances in 1829. However, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declared his intention to become a writer, primarily of poems, and parted ways with Allan.

Poe switched his focus to prose, and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1836, when he was 27, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. She died of tuberculosis in 1847.

In January 1845, he published his poem “The Raven” to instant success. He planned for years to produce his own journal The Penn, later renamed The Stylus. But before it began publishing, Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances. The cause of his death remains unknown and has been attributed to many causes, including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.

Poe’s works influenced the development of literature throughout the world and even impacted such specialized fields as cosmology and cryptography. Since his death, he and his writings have appeared throughout popular culture in such fields as art, photography, literary allusions, music, motion pictures, and television. Several of his homes are dedicated museums. In addition, The Mystery Writers of America presents an annual Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.

Frequently Asked Questions

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre.

Edgar Allan Poe is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of the detective fiction and science fiction genres.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809.

Poe’s father abandoned the family in 1810, and when his mother Eliza died the following year, Poe was taken in by the wealthy Allan family of Richmond, Virginia, although they never formally adopted him.

In 1827, Poe published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, under the assumed name of ,a Bostonian, while serving in the United States Army.

The cause of Poe’s death in 1849 at the age of 40 remains unknown and has been attributed to various potential causes, including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.

Poe’s works influenced the development of literature worldwide and even impacted specialized fields like cosmology and cryptography. His legacy continues to be celebrated in popular culture, with several of his former homes turned into dedicated museums.

44 Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

  1. 1.

    We loved with a love that was more than love.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  2. 2.

    Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  3. 3.

    If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  4. 4.

    I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  5. 5.

    It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  6. 6.

    There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  7. 7.

    All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  8. 8.

    The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  9. 9.

    They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  10. 10.

    In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  11. 11.

    Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  12. 12.

    Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  13. 13.

    A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this – that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made – not to understand – but to feel – as crime.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  14. 14.

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  15. 15.

    I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  16. 16.

    That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  17. 17.

    The generous Critic fann’d the Poet’s fire, And taught the world with reason to admire.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  18. 18.

    Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it ‘the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.’ The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of ‘Artist.’

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  19. 19.

    That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  20. 20.

    The rudiment of verse may, possibly, be found in the spondee.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  21. 21.

    The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  22. 22.

    All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  23. 23.

    Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  24. 24.

    Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  25. 25.

    Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  26. 26.

    I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  27. 27.

    I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  28. 28.

    The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  29. 29.

    I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  30. 30.

    Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  31. 31.

    I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  32. 32.

    There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  33. 33.

    Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  34. 34.

    The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  35. 35.

    Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  36. 36.

    Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  37. 37.

    In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  38. 38.

    There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  39. 39.

    The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  40. 40.

    It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  41. 41.

    To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  42. 42.

    With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  43. 43.

    It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)

  44. 44.

    I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect – in terror.

    Edgar Allan Poe

    American writer and literary critic (1809-1849)