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On Jan. 19 1809, Edgar Allan Poe (d.1849), American writer, was born in Boston.
His father, David Poe, was an Irish-American actor and abandoned his family
shortly after Edgar’s birth. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, died in
1811 and he grew up with a foster family. Poe studied briefly at the
University of Virginia, but then he quarreled with his foster father and
went to Boston in 1827, where he published his first volume of poetry
anonymously. In the early 1840s Poe became known for his lyrical, brooding
poems and detective stories, such as "The Gold Bug" and "Murders at the
Rue Morgue." In fact, he is recognized as the father of the modern
detective story. Poe was unafraid to criticize literary practices of
the time, stressing the importance of artistic value more than moral
value. After battles with alcoholism and his wife Virginia's illness
and death, Poe became depressed but continued to write. He became
engaged again in 1849 but soon died at the age of 40. His best known
stories include: "Fall of the House of Usher " and "The Tell-Tale Heart."
His most famous poems are "The Raven" and Annabel Lee." "I hold that a
long poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, 'a long poem,'
is simply a flat contradiction in terms."
