On this day in 1809, Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston.
One of the true "giants" of American literature, Poe is generally credited with inventing the "detective story" (The Murders at Rue Morgue, The Tell-Tale Heart), as well as developing the now-standard techniques of the modern horror story (Masque of the Red Death) and psychological fiction (William Wilson: A Tale) as well as being one of the major influences for writers of science fiction.
In addition to this, he was famous for his poetry (The Raven), as well as being a major literary theorist and critic of his day. He wrote hundreds of reviews of other people's work, and occasionally published scathing reviews of his own work, under pseudonyms, in order to generate publicity for himself.
Poe died in 1849, at the age of 40, having ruined his health with a lifetime of debauchery, which often included prolonged periods of sleep deprivation followed by days and nights of drug-induced writing. The cause of his death is unknown, but is often attributed to alcohol poisoning, a drug overdose (either accidentally or as suicide), tuberculosis, rabies, or a heart attack brought on by his self-abuse.
4 comments:
does that mystery person still visit his grave every year?
I spent 2 months studying Poe with my grade 8 students...at first they hated it, but then they started to really love it, and referred to him as the "Eminem of the Victorian Age".
Sounds like someone you could meet at the Times Change(d)
nevermore.
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