Edgar Allan Poe wrote poetry, short-stories, and literary critics while making his way through the American Romantic Movement. His stories full of mystery and obscure happenings are considered to have made Poe the inventor of the detective-fiction literary genre. He was one of the earliest writers of short stories and is considered to have been contributed to the science fiction genre development.
Poe had a difficult career and life as he was best known at that time as the first American writer who tried to earn his living only through writing. Born in Boston, Poe was an orphan since a little child, but was taken by John and Frances Allan, who had never adopted him by official papers.
His publishing career started out modestly when he edited an anonymous poem collection, “Tamerlane and Other Poems” in 1827, which has been credited to “a Bostonian.” Poe spent some time at the University of Virginia and attempted to make a military career, but the writing was his only true career.
He developed his literary criticism by writing for several years for literary journals and periodicals. Yet, during that time, Poe had to move from town to town very often, arriving to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City too. In 1835 in Baltimore, Poe married the 13-year-old Virginia Clemm, who was his cousin.
The first poem of Poe who had instant success was “The Raven,” but for that moment, the poem was everything he had because his wife died of tuberculosis two years later. So Poe started to write a journal, “The Penn,” which he had never produced due to his death.
Poe died at the age of 40, on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore. Only four days before, he was found on the streets of the city delirious and in need of assistance. Joseph W. Walker was the man who found him and took him to the Washington College Hospital. However, Poe died at 5:00 in the morning on the 7th of the same month.
No one could possible tell how the writer got into that distress condition because Poe himself couldn’t explain his reasons either. Yet, on the night before his death, he used to constantly repeat the word “Reynolds,” but no one could figure out who that man was.
His death may be still considered a mystery because all the records from the hospital, including his death certificate, have been lost. Some newspapers at that time wrote that he has suffered a congestion of the brain caused to alcoholism.
On January 19, poets and writers celebrate 200 years since Poe’s birth. His works have influenced the American literature but also the one from all around the world. Many of his homes are nowadays dedicated museums and his work appears throughout literature, music, films and also television.
