Author Profile: Edgar Allen Poe

Full Name: Edgar Allen Poe

Born: January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts

Died: October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland

Wrote: "The Raven," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Purloined Letter," "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Poe lived a tragic life, as his father abandoned the family and his mother died of tuberculosis. He grew up with a foster family, but they became estranged after he collected debts from gambling in university. Poe also experienced a difficult romantic life; his first love broke off an engagement to marry another man and then his young wife died of tuberculosis. Perhaps the pain throughout his life inspired his stories and poems, many of which feature tragedy or darker themes. He was a part of the dark romanticism movement, which emphasized death and often judgement, as a reaction to transcendentalism (which Poe disliked). These themes can be seen in his eerie poem, "The Raven," or the story "The Tell-Tale Heart," where a murderer's guilt causes him to imagine the sound of his victim's heart still beating past death. Poe is also considered the father of the detective story, with his protagonist C. Auguste Dupin solving mysteries with the power of both intellect and imagination. Poe died as he lived: tragically, at the age of forty, from unknown causes.