1. 1809-1849

2. the author  American poet, short-story writer, editor & literary critic, Poe is considered part of the American Romantic Movement.  Best known for his tales of mystery & terror, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story & is considered the inventor of the detective- fiction genre. He was the first well- known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life & career.

3. an orphan dropout  His childhood was a miserable one. He lost both of his parents when he was very young & then was adopted by a wealthy merchant, John Allan. Poe’s time with the Allan’s was unhappy.  He entered the University of Virginia & later West Point, but did not finish either.

4. tragic loss  He worked as an editor & writer most of his life, living in poverty.  At 27 he married his 13 year-old cousin, Virginia, whose death in 1847 left him inconsolable. He died two years later.  Theories state he may have suffered from addictions to alcohol & opium. Virginia Clemm Poe died at age 24 of tuberculosis.

5. death theories  1857 Murder (Beating)  1860’s Cooping  1874 Epilepsy  1921 Dipsomania  1926 Heart  1970 Toxic Disorder  1970 Hypoglycemia  1977 Diabetes  1984 Alcohol Deficiency  1989 Porphyria  1992 Delirium Tremens  1996 Rabies  1998 Murder (Beating)  1999 Epilepsy  1999 Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Records show Poe died in Washington College Hospital… his cause of death remains a mystery.

6. Poe has been called…  inventor of the detective story  master of the psychological horror story  America’s 1 st great literary critic

7. list of works Among all his writing, his poems & short stories are more famous.  Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque  “MS. Found in a Bottle”  “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”  “The Fall of the House of Usher”  “The Masque of the Red Death”  “The Cask of Amontillado”  “The Tell-Tale Heart”  “The Raven”  “Annabel Lee”  The Poetic Principle  The Philosophy of Composition The Simpsons version of “The Raven”

8. features of his work  Detective & science stories  Gothic elements  High emotion: anger, surprise, and esp. terror!  Supernatural horrors & fear of unknown  Deep analysis of human psychology  He noticed subconscious of human mind nearly one hundred years before Freud.  He was also the first American author to use neurotic characters as main characters in his stories.

9. evaluation  Poe is a controversial & misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.  Emerson dismissed him in three words: “the jingle man”  Twain declared his prose to be unreadable  Whitman was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875  Today, Poe’s particular power has ensured his position among the greatest writers of the world.

10. references Ciaffaroni. “Edgar Allan Poe.” AuthorStream, 2002-2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2011. The Museum of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe Museum, 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.