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EDGAR ALLAN POE
Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe
deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short
story from anecdote to art. He virtually created the detective story and
perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most
influential literary criticism of his time--important theoretical statements on
poetry and the short story--and has had a worldwide influence on literature.
Poe's parents were touring actors; both died before he was 3 years old, and he
was taken into the home of John Allan, a prosperous merchant in Richmond, Va.,
and baptized Edgar Allan Poe. His childhood was uneventful, although he studied
(1815-20) for 5 years in England. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia
but stayed for only a year. Although a good student, he ran up large gambling
debts that Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented his return to the university
and broke off Poe's engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart.
Lacking any means of support, Poe enlisted in the army. He had, however, already
written and printed (at his own expense) his first book, Tamerlane and Other
Poems (1827), verses written in the manner of Byron.
Temporarily reconciled, Allan secured Poe's release from the army and his
appointment to West Point but refused to provide financial support. After 6
months Poe apparently contrived to be dismissed from West Point for disobedience
of orders. His fellow cadets, however, contributed the funds for the publication
of Poems by Edgar A. Poe...Second Edition (1831), actually a third
edition--after Tamerlane and Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems
(1829). This volume contained the famous To Helen and Israfel,
poems that show the restraint and the calculated musical effects of language
that were to characterize his poetry.
Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and
her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself. In
1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories--all comic
or satiric--and in 1833, MS. Found in a Bottle won a $50 prize given by
the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in
1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and married
Virginia, who was not yet 14 years old.
Poe published fiction, notably his most horrifying tale, Berenice, in the
Messenger, but most of his contributions were serious, analytical, and critical
reviews that earned him respect as a critic. He praised the young Dickens and a
few other contemporaries but devoted most of his attention to devastating
reviews of popular contemporary authors. His contributions undoubtedly increased
the magazine's circulation, but they offended its owner, who also took exception
to Poe's drinking. The January 1837 issue of the Messenger announced Poe's
withdrawal as editor but also included the first installment of his long prose
tale, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, five of his reviews, and two of
his poems. This was to be the paradoxical pattern for Poe's career: success as
an artist and editor but failure to satisfy his employers and to secure a
livelihood.
First in New York City (1837), then in Philadelphia (1838-44), and again in New
York (1844-49), Poe sought to establish himself as a force in literary
journalism, but with only moderate success. He did succeed, however, in
formulating influential literary theories and in demonstrating mastery of the
forms he favored--highly musical poems and short prose narratives. Both forms,
he argued, should aim at "a certain unique or single effect." His
theory of short fiction is best exemplified in Ligeia (1838), the tale
Poe considered his finest, and The Fall of the House of Usher (1839),
which was to become one of his most famous stories. Whether or not Poe invented
the short story, it is certain that he originated the novel of detection.
Perhaps his best-known tale in this genre is The Gold Bug (1843), about a
search for buried treasure. The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), The
Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842-1843), and The Purloined Letter (1844)
are regarded as predecessors of the modern mystery, or detective, story. Among
Poe's poetic output, about a dozen poems are remarkable for their flawless
literary construction and for their haunting themes and meters. In The Raven
(1845), for example, the narrator is overwhelmed by melancholy and omens of
death. Poe's extraordinary manipulation of rhythm and sound is particularly
evident in The Bells (1849), a poem that seems to echo with the chiming
of metallic instruments, and The Sleeper (1831), which reproduces the
state of drowsiness. Lenore (1831) and Annabel Lee (1849) are
verse lamentations on the death of a beautiful young woman.
Many of Poe's tales are distinguished by the author's unique grotesque
inventiveness in addition to his superb plot construction. Such stories include The
Pit and the Pendulum (1842), a spine-tingling tale of cruelty and torture; The
Tell-Tale Heart (1843), in which a maniacal murderer is subconsciously
haunted into confessing his guilt; and The Cask of Amontillado (1846), an
eerie tale of revenge.
Virginia's death in January 1847 was a heavy blow, but Poe continued to write
and lecture. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was
accepted anew by the fiancee he had lost in 1826. After his return north he was
found unconscious on a Baltimore street. In a brief obituary the Baltimore
Clipper reported that Poe had died of "congestion of the brain."
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