Edgar Allan Poe autograph letter to A. S. Cummings in autograph album

1839-1872

Edgar Allan Poe (born 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American author, poet, and critic.

Poe was orphaned at two years old and raised by John and Frances Allan in Richmond, Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, but dropped out due to financial difficulties. Poe then joined the Army and published his first poetry collection Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827. He attended West Point but, again, left the Academy due to financial hardship. Poe published his second poetry collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems in 1829 and his third poetry collection, Poems, in 1831.

After leaving West Point, Poe shifted his focus from poetry to short stories, literary criticism, and editorial and publishing work at literary publications. In 1836, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. Poe's work required the couple to move between Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and New York City.

From 1840 to 1841, Poe created a prospectus for a literary magazine he proposed to edit and publish called Penn Magazine.

From 1835 to his death, Poe wrote pieces of literary theory, such as "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846); literary criticism of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry; and genre-defining short stories, such as the Gothic horror short stories "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) and "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839).

Poe died under mysterious circumstances in 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland.