An AOIT web assignement created by Mamadou Diallo
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was
born in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who were itinerant actors.
His father David Poe Jr. died probably in 1810. Elizabeth Hopkins Poe
died in 1811, leaving three children. Edgar was taken into the home of
a Richmond merchant John Allan. The remaining children were cared for
by others. Poe's brother William died young and sister Rosalie become
later insane. At the age of five Poe could recite passages of English
poetry. Later one of his teachers in Richmond said: "While the other
boys wrote mere mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy
was a born poet."Poe was brought up
partly in England (1815-20), where he attended Manor School at Stoke
Newington. Later it become the setting for his story 'William Wilson'.
Never legally adopted, Poe took Allan's name for his middle name. Poe
attended the University of Virginia (1826-27), but was expelled for not
paying his gambling debts. This led to quarrel with Allan, who refused
to pay the debts. Allan later disowned him. In 1826 Poe became engaged
to Elmira Royster, but her parents broke off the engagement. During his
stay at the university, Poe composed some tales, but little is known of
his apprentice works. In 1827 Poe joined the U.S. Army as a common
soldier under assumed name, Edgar A. Perry. He was sent to Sullivan's
Island, South Carolina, which provided settings for 'The Gold Bug'
(1843) and 'The Balloon Hoax' (1844). Tamerlane and Other Poems
(1827), which Poe published at his own expense, sold poorly. It has
become one of the rarest volumes in American literary history. In 1830
Poe entered West Point. He was dishonorably discharged next year, for
intentional neglect of his duties - apparently as a result of his own
determination to be released.
In 1836 Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. She bust a blood vessel in 1842, and remained a virtual invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later. He had several romances, including an affair with the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who said: "His proud reserve, his profound melancholy, his unworldliness - may we not say his unearthliness of nature - made his character one very difficult of comprehension to the casual observer." In 1849 Poe become again engaged to Elmira Royster, who was at that time Mrs. Shelton. To Virginia he addressed the famous poem 'Annabel Lee' (1849) - its subject, Poe's favorite, is the death of a beautiful woman.
Poe's first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and
Arabesque,
appeared in 1840. It contained one of his most famous work, 'The Fall
of the House of Usher.' In the story the narrator visits the crumbling
mansion of his friend, Roderick Usher, and tries to dispel Roderick's
gloom. Although his twin sister, Madeline, has been placed in the
family vault dead, Roderick is convinced she lives. Madeline arises in
trance, and carries her brother to death. The house itself splits
asunder and sinks into the tarn. The tale has inspired several film
adaptations. Roger Corman's version from 1960, starring Mark Damon,
Harry Ellerbe, Myrna Fahey, and Vincent Price, was the first of the
director's Poe movies. The Raven (1963) collected old stars of
the horror genre, Vincent Price, Peter, Lorre, and Boris Karloff.
According to the director, Price and Lorre "drove Boris a little crazy"
- the actor was not used to improvised dialogue. Corman filmed the
picture in fifteen days, using revamped portions of his previous Poe
sets. 
During the early
1840s, Poe's
best-selling work was curiously The Conchologist's First Book
(1839). It was based on Thomas Wyatt's work, which sold poorly because
of its high prize. Wyatt was Poe's friend and asked him to abridge the
book and put his own name on its title page - the publisher had
strongly opposed any idea of producing a cheaper edition. The
Conchologist's First Book was a success. Its first edition was sold
out in two months and other editions followed.
The dark poem of lost love, 'The
Raven,' brought Poe national fame,
when it appeared in 1845. "With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a
passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not -
they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry
compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind." (from The Raven and Other Poems, preface, 1845) In a lecture in Boston the author
said that the two most effective letters in the English language were o
and r - this inspired the expression "nevermore" in 'The Raven',
and because a parrot is unworthy of the dignity of poetry, a raven
could well repeat the word at the end of each stanza. Lenore rhymed
with "nevermore." The poems has inspired a number of artists. Perhaps
the most renowed are Gustave Doré's (1832-1883) melancholic
illustrations.
Poe suffered
from bouts of depression and madness, and he attempted
suicide in 1848. In September the following year he disappeared for
three days after a drink at a birthday party and on his way to visit
his new fiancée in Richmond. He turned up in delirious condition
in Baltimore gutter and died on October 7, 1849.
In his supernatural fiction Poe usually dealt with paranoia rooted in personal psychology, physical or mental enfeeblement, obsessions, the damnation of death, feverish fantasies, the cosmos as source of horror and inspiration, without bothering himself with such supernatural beings as ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and so on. Some of his short stories are humorous, among them 'The Devil in the Belfry, "The Duc de l'Omelette,' 'Bon-Bon' and 'Never Bet the Devil Your Head,' all of which employ the Devil as an ironic figure of fun. - Poe was also one of the most prolific literary journalists in American history, one whose extensive body of reviews and criticism has yet to be collected fully. James Russell Lowell (1819-91) once wrote about Poe: "Three fifths of him genius and two fifths sheer fudge."