Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most prominent writers of the American Romantic Movement. He is known for writing poetry and short stories, but he also worked as an editor and a literary critic. Hs most famous works are centered on mystery and the macabre, also pioneering the detective-fiction genre, with stories such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Poe is also considered to have been one of the first practitioners of short stories, but also of the science fiction genre on the whole. He was one of the first American writers who decided to try and make a living off writing alone, which obviously resulted in him having a difficult life and career due to financial shortages.

 

Poe’s personal life was also filled with controversy and eeriness. For instance, Edgar Allan Poe decided to marry his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1835. Ten years later, in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe publishes what is undoubtedly his most famous poem, namely The Raven. Two years later, his wife dies of tuberculosis. In 1849, Poe himself dies, at the age of 40. His death was attributed to a wide array of causes, among which alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide and tuberculosis.

 

As it usually happens around the time of his birthday, namely January 19^th, a number of cities are fighting for the right to claim Edgar Allan Poe as being their own, among which Baltimore, home of his burial ground, Philadelphia, where he wrote most of his works. There’s also the Bronx, where Poe lived during his last years, Boston, where the writer was born, but also Richmond, where he spent his childhood with his adoptive family, the Allans.