POE, Edgar Allan

“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

Generally acknowledged by many as the architect of the modern short story, and one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction, Poe’s influence on English literature should not be underestimated.  Orphaned at an early age, he was brought up in Richmond, Virginia where he received a classical education, before gambling debts resulted in his being sent down from university and joining the military, but during this time he wrote and had published his first volume of poems.  He also had his first short story (MS Found in a Bottle) published, and became an editor of the first of a series of literary magazines.  Whilst editing Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine in 1841 he published The Murders in the Rue Morgue – which is considered to be one of the first detective short stories.   His poem, The Raven, published in 1845, was observed by a contemporary critic to be “the most effective single example of fugitive poetry ever published in this country, and is unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conceptions, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift."

A brilliant and erratic star of the literary world, with a problematic personal life, often drunk and always passionate, his tales and poems of the macabre and supernatural have rarely been surpassed . Today Poe is remembered as one of the first American writers to become a major figure in world literature.

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