Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known works include the poems “To Helen” (1831), “The Raven” (1845), and “Annabel Lee” (1849); the short stories of wickedness and crime “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843) and “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846); and the supernatural horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839).

Edgar Allan Poe is credited with initiating the modern detective story, developing the Gothic horror story, and being a significant early forerunner of the science fiction form. Poe’s literary criticism, which put great stress upon correctness of language, metre, and structure and the importance of achieving a unity of mood or effect, shaped literary theory.

Edgar Allan Poe turned up in a tavern in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 3, 1849, in bad shape and nearly unresponsive and was soon admitted to a hospital. He drifted in and out of consciousness, hallucinating and speaking nonsense. On October 7 he died, although whether from drinking, heart failure, or other causes remains uncertain.