Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, critic and editor best known for evocative short stories and poems that captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world. His imaginative storytelling and tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story.
Many of Poe’s works, including “‘The Raven,’ ‘The Black Cat’, The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” became literary classics. Some aspects of Poe’s life, like his literature, is shrouded in mystery, and the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death.
Early Life and Family Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Poe never really knew his parents — Elizabeth Arnold Poe, a British actress, and David Poe, Jr., an actor who was born in Baltimore. His father left the family early in Poe’s life, and his mother passed away from tuberculosis when he was only three.
