A
drunkard. A poet. An editor. A reporter. A military man. An orphan. A lecturer.
The father of the detective novel. The Shakespeare of America. A slanderer and
libeler. The husband of a 13-year-old bride.
And
a writer. Above all, a writer.
We
associate Edgar Allen Poe with 19th century gothic. His stories – “Fall
of the House of Usher,” “Twice-Told Tales,” “Masque of the Red Death,” “Murders
in the Rue Morgue,” among many others – are full of mystery, passion, horror, violence,
death, and the supernatural. And yet his poems, especially “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee,” made him famous
in pre-Civil War America and established his literary reputation.
Questions
and mystery surrounded Poe’s own life and death and continue even today – we may
never know who left
three roses and a bottle of cognac on his grave in Baltimore for decades
until 2011 (alas, the “Poe Toaster” disappeared or died, to be seen nevermore).
To
continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
1 comment:
I like to read biographies and memoirs and your post shows me that Poe's biographies would be interesting.
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