You may know that Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher but did you know that . . .
1 – Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston. He died on October 7, 1849.
2 – His parents were both actors. In fact, Poe may have been named after a character in King Lear. His parents performed the play the year of Poe’s birth.
3 – Poe’s father abandoned the family in 1810. Sadly, Poe’s mother passed away in 1811. Edgar was raised by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia.
4 – In 1835 Poe married Virginia Clemm, his first cousin. She was thirteen-year-old at the time. They remained married until her death in 1847.
5 – Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre because of his work, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
6 – Poe died in 1849 at the age of 40. The cause of his death is a mystery. Theories about the matter include alcohol, carbon monoxide poisoning, suicide and even rabies.
Partial List of Poe’s Work
- The Cask of Amontillado
- A Descent into the Maelstrom
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
- The Fall of the House of Usher
- The Gold-Bug
- Hop-Frog
- The Imp of the Perverse
- Ligeia
- The Masque of the Red Death
- Morella
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue
- The Oval Portrait
- The Pit and the Pendulum
- The Premature Burial
- The Purloined Letter
- The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
- The Tell-Tale Heart
– Biography