Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston. He was the son of itinerant actors who died before Poe was three years old. He then became the ward of a Virginia couple called the Allans, whose name he added to his own. He studied at the University of Virginia, but his love of drinking and gambling made his stay there short lived. He then enlisted in the Army and served soberly from 1827 to 1829. In 1830 Poe was accepted into West Point, but he ruined his chances there as well with more drinking. In 1836 he married his cousin, thirteen year old Virginia Clemm, and tried to support her by writing and editing. He was editor of the Richmond Southern Literary Messenger, as well as a few others, and published his own magazine for a while called The Stylus. He won many literary prized early in his career, but he made little money, and his alcoholism cost him many jobs in journalism. His wife died in 1847, and he then became engaged to a wealthy widow. In 1849, while traveling to meet the widow, he met some friends and went out drinking with them. He was later found unconscious in a Baltimore street and died a few days later.

Edgar Allan Poe was a household name to American readers. His use of terror and the supernatural in his fiction made him very popular with them. His writing, however, used little of the American experience, but relied heavily on the Gothic techniques and German romanticism. While his short fiction was loved in the United States, his poetry was more successful overseas, especially in France. His critical essays have had a profound effect on literature as well, especially in the short story.

The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe:

The Unparalled Adventures of One Hans Pfall
The Gold Bug
Four Beasts in One
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Balloon Hoax
MS. Found in a Bottle
The Oval Portrait
The Purloined Letter
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherezade
A Descent into the Maelström
Von Kempelen and his Discovery
Mesmeric Revelation
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Black Cat
The Fall of the House of Usher
Silence -- a Fable
The Masque of the Red Death
The Cask of Amontillado
The Imp of the Perverse
The Island of the Fay
The Assignation
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Premature Burial
The Domain of Arnheim
Landor's Cottage
William Wilson
The Tell-Tale Heart
Berenice
Eleonora
Narrative of A. Gordon Pym
    Chapter 1
    Chapter 2
    Chapter 3
    Chapter 4
    Chapter 5
    Chapter 6
    Chapter 7
    Chapter 8
    Chapter 9
    Chapter 10
    Chapter 11
    Chapter 12
    Chapter 13
    Chapter 14
    Chapter 15
    Chapter 16
    Chapter 17
    Chapter 18
    Chapter 19
    Chapter 20
    Chapter 21
    Chapter 22
    Chapter 23
    Chapter 24
    Chapter 25
Ligeia
Morella
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
The Spectacles
King Pest
Three Sundays in a Week
The Devil in the Belfry
Lionizing
X-ing a Paragrab
Metzengerstein
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
How to Write a Blackwood article
A Predicament
Mystification
Diddling
The Angel of the Odd
Mellonia Tauta
The Duc de l'Omlette
The Oblong Box
Loss of Breath
The Man That Was Used Up
The Business Man
The Landscape Garden
Maelzel's Chess-Player
The Power of Words
The Colloquy of Monas and Una
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Shadow.--A Parable
Philosophy of Furniture
A Tale of Jerusalem
The Sphinx
Hop Frog
The Man of the Crowd
Never Bet the Devill Your Head
Thou Art the Man
Why the Little Frenchman Wears his Hand in a Sling
Bon-Bon
Some words with a Mummy
The Poetic Principle
Old English Poetry
The Raven
The Bells
Ulalume
To Helen
Annabel Lee
A Valentine
An Enigma
To my Mother
For Annie
To F----
To Frances S. Osgood
Eldorado
Eulalie
A Dream within a Dream
To Marie Louise (Shew)
To the Same
The City in the Sea
The Sleeper
Bridal Ballad
Lenore
To One in Paradise
The Coliseum
The Haunted Palace
The Conqueror Worm
Silence
Dreamland
Hymn
To Zante
Scenes from "Politian"
Sonnet--To Science
Al Aaraaf
Tamerlane
To Helen
The Valley of Unrest
Israfel
To -- ("The Bowers Whereat, in Dreams I See")
To -- ("I Heed not That my Earthly Lot")
To the River --
Song
A Dream
Romance
Fairyland
The Lake To--
"The Happiest Day"
Imitation
Hymn
"In Youth I Have Known One"
A Paean

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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

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