WARNING
Linda Prather, an undergraduate student at East Tennessee State University, designed this site for a project in an American Literature course.  As a lover of mysteries and advocate for the underdog, Linda became intrigued with Poe early in the course and felt compelled to investigate.  She wanted to discover if all critics considered Poe an immoralist,  addict with a sadistic pen or if there was a deeper psychic involved.  She found there are many critics who praise Poe and there is a sensitive side to this misunderstood writer.  This site tries to present an unbiased side of Poe's background and includes two poems that reflex, what Linda considers to be, his sensitive side.
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"Mystery there will always be about him, and perhaps it will always require a certain kind of temperament to feel on easy terms with him, but this day and age anybody who considers him an atheist, a diabolist, an immoralist, or a Gothic monster is simply unwilling to consider the evidence at hand."

Edward Wagenknecht on Edgar Allan Poe, 1963 (54)
 

 Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his poems, short stories, and his literary criticism. He has been credited for inventing detective stories and psychological thrillers. Could it be that his works influenced modern-day writers like Steven King?  Little was known about "the man" until 1874, when Englishman John Henry Ingram appointed himself the task of cleansing Poe's name and reputation, which had been distorted by Rufus Griswold, when he altered Poe's private letters and published Poe's autobiographical "memoir". In Ingram's search he was the first to openly call Griswold a liar and forger and the first to discover Poe's true birth date.

Biography

Poe was a middle child born to traveling actors David and Elizabeth Poe in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His father, the son of a good Baltimore family, left his wife and three children shortly before Edgar was three years old. Elizabeth Poe died in 1811 from consumption, pulmonary tuberculosis. It is believed that David Poe died in either 1810 or 1811. By the young age of three, Poe had suffered the loss of both of his parents. The young Edgar was taken into the foster home of Mr. and Mrs. John Allan of Richmond, Virginia. Poe was christened with his middle name while he was living with this prosperous tobacco merchant, but was never legally adopted by him. Young Edgar was a handsome, intelligent, moody child devoted to his new mother, Francis Allan. John Allan treated him with alternate indulgence and severity.

Poe's Pen

Poe was educated in England (1815 - 1820), where he showed a great interest in literature and foreign languages. At age seventeen, 1826, he attended the University of Virginia where he displayed a brilliant mind. He excelled in mastering Latin, French, and the classics, and was an active member of the Jefferson Literary Society. He also studied Greek, Spanish, and Italian. John Allan did not provide enough financial support to Poe; therefore, Poe began gambling for his expenses, and lost heavily. Mr. Allan refused to pay the debts and would not allow Poe to continue his college education. Poe left the Allan household and joined the United States Army in 1827. Army life was attractive to Poe. However, in 1829 he was called back to Richmond when Francis Allan was on her deathbed. At that time Poe persuaded John Allan to help with admission to West Point. Once at West Point, Poe hated the discipline and his self-destructive behavior took over; he deliberately neglected his duties and was discharged in 1831. By this time Poe had published two books, Tamerlane and Other Poems and Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829), which contained some of his best lyrics "To Helen", "Israfel", "The Doomed City", "The Valley of Nis" and "Irene."

Because John Allan disowned his foster son after his expulsion from West Point, Poe went to live with his aunt, Mrs. Maria Clemm, her children, and his older brother, William, in Baltimore. The large household was always struggling for funds, and by the age of twenty-five Poe's long stretches of near starvation had permanently ruined his health. Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia, in 1836. She was a pale beauty to whom Poe was deeply devoted. Her death in 1847 struck Poe very hard. He dedicated "Annabel Lee" and "Ulalume" to his childlike bride.

For story ideas, Poe referenced British and American magazines of his era, famous and obscure pieces from classical antiquity, and contemporary fictions. Keats, Chatterton, Pope, and Coleridge influenced him. During his literary career, Poe worked as a staff member of various magazines. As a literary assist for the Gentlemen's Magazine, Poe had the opportunity to review the works of Longfellow, Lowell, Bryant, and Cooper. His contemporaries found him difficult to accept. "His pen was a caustic one, yet his judgment in appraising contemporary literature was sound and keen, the most constructive criticism the country has known" he was also considered "authentic and gifted critic, not a hurried and superficial reviewer" per Laura Benet in her introduction of Tales by Poe. James Russell Lowell has been quoted as saying, "he is three fifths pure genius and two fifths sheer fudge". Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to him as "the jungle man."

Critics Thoughts

Poe was more popular in France and England than in America. Now, however he is considered one of the world's most popular writers. His works have influenced Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ernest Dawson, Ambrose Bierce and Hart Crane. His writings have been compared to Horance Walpole's. "The Raven" (1845) was his best known poem in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to his poems and short stories, Poe wrote essays on The Philosophy of Composition and The Poetic Principle.

Circumstances of Edgar Allan Poe's death (October 7, 1849) are still a mystery, much like "the man." Those closest to Poe characterized him as unselfish, considerate, and noble. Others found him arrogant, moody, self-centered, and even ungrateful. Krutch sums it well when he says, "By some Poe has been judged almost as severely as Griswold judged him, by others, he is pictured as the helpless victim of a crass society which persecuted genius…Poe was a genius neurotic in certain describable respects."

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Alone

By Edgar Allan Poe

FROM childhood's hour I have not been
As others were - I have not seen
As others saw - I could not bring
My passions from a common spring -
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow - I could not awaken
My hear to joy at the same tone -
And all I loved - I loved alone -
Thou - in my childhood - in the dawn
Of a most stormy life - was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still -
From the torrent, or the fountain -
From the red cliff of the mountain -
From the sun that round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold -
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by -
From the thunder and the storm -
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

March 17, 1829

"Alone" is an example of Poe's earliest works. It was written the month after Francis Allan, his foster mother died. Leaving him along, again. Poe's pain of losing another person close to his heart can be felt. Poe allows the reader to feel how, from childhood, he always felt different. He did not feel passion, sorrow, joy or love as others did. While those around him were seeing a bright future, he knew his future, like his life so far, was full of demons. "Alone" is not always included in Poe's known writing. It was found in the personal album of Mrs. Balderstone, A Baltimore friend of Poe's. Even thought it was in Poe's own handwriting there were originally doubts that Poe had written it.

For more information, check these:

& "To My Mother"

&  Bibliography

& E. A. Poe Museum

& More Poe on the Web

 
 


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