Edgar Allan Poe

Photograph of Edgar Allan Poe, taken by W.S. Hartshorn, Providence, Rhode Island, November, 1848

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, critic, essayist, and one of the most prominent figures in the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and of the macabre, Poe was one of the early American practitioners of the short story, the first writer of detective fiction and crime fiction, and is sometimes credited as an important progenitor of science fiction as well.

Life

Poe was born as Edgar Poe in January 19th, 1809, to David Poe, Jr., and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, both of them moderately succefful stage actors. The family's fortunes took a turn for the worse when David Poe abandoned his family in 1810, and the year following, Poe's mother died of tuberculosius. Poe was taken in by John Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Virginia, who in his generous moods lavished attention and money on his foster son, while at other times playing the stern disciplinarian. Throughout Poe's younger years, Allen seemed strangely oblivious to Poe's desperate need for a sense of belonging. He sent young Edgar to a boarding school in England which, to judge from Poe's later story "William Wilson" (set in a fictionalized version of the school) only furthered his sense of isolation.