1. Edgar Allan Poe 1809 - 1849

2. Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who were itinerate actors.

3. Edgar Allan Poe His father, David Poe, Jr., died in 1810, and his mother, Elizabeth Hopkins Poe, died in 1811. He was virtually an orphan before the age of three.

4. Edgar Allan Poe Poe was taken into the home of John Allan, a Richmond merchant. His brother and sister were taken into different homes. Poe was never legally adopted. Poe took Allan’s name as his middle name.

5. Edgar Allan Poe At the age of five, Poe could recite passages of English poetry. One of his teachers said, “While the other boys wrote mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy was born a poet.”

6. Edgar Allan Poe Poe attended the Univ. of Virginia but was expelled for not paying his gambling debts. This led to a quarrel with Allan, who later disowned him.

7. Edgar Allan Poe In 1830, Poe entered West Point Academy. He was dishonorably discharged the next year. Some say it was a result of his own determination to be released.

8. Edgar Allan Poe In 1833, Poe moved to Baltimore with his father’s sister (his aunt) Mrs. Maria Poe Clemm. He started a career as a staff writer for various magazines: Southern Literary Messenger, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, and Graham’s Magazine.

9. Edgar Allan Poe In 1836, Poe married his 13- year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. She burst a blood vessel in 1842, and remained an invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later.

10. Edgar Allan Poe After the death of his wife, Poe began to lose his struggle with drinking and drugs. To Virginia, he addressed the famous poem “Annabell Lee” – its subject, Poe’s favorite, is the death of a beautiful woman.

11. Edgar Allan Poe Poe’s first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, was published in 1840. It contained one of his most famous works, “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

12. Edgar Allan Poe In 1845, Poe received national fame from his most famous poem, “The Raven,” a dark poem of lost love. Poe said the two most effective letters in the English language were o and r – this inspired the expression “nevermore” in “The Raven.”

13. Edgar Allan Poe Poe suffered from bouts of depression and madness; he attempted suicide in 1848. In September of 1849, he disappeared for three days after drinking at a birthday party on his way to visit his new fiancée. He was found in a delirious condition in a Baltimore gutter and died just days later, on Oct. 7, 1849.

14. Edgar Allan Poe The themes from Poe’s writings include: love and loss death and immortality power of the imagination nature the spiritual life.

15. Edgar Allan Poe Poe is credited with laying the foundation for the modern day detective story.

16. Edgar Allan Poe Poe is the master of the psychological thriller; his tales are ghastly and grotesque Poe’s purpose is to leave behind the sunlit, tangible, rational world and discover the unsettling truth that lies in the dark, irrational depths of the human mind.

17. Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House of Usher Annabell Lee (poem) The Pit and the Pendulum The Cask of Amontillado The Tell-Tale Heart The Bells (poem) The Raven (poem) Alone (poem)Spirits of the Dead (poem)

18. Edgar Allan Poe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcqP QXqQXzI ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwmd 1IFshYc (The Raven)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcqP QXqQXzI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwmd 1IFshYc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecfVIt 641n0 (Annabel Lee)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecfVIt 641n0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_gfT VClku4 (The Bells)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_gfT VClku4