Edgar Allan Poe wrote as mysterious as a cat!

Today is the 202nd birth anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's most posthumously celebrated authors.


Edgar Allan Poe
(January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

List of Poe's works

Tales
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    "The Black Cat"
    "The Cask of Amontillado"
    "A Descent into the Maelström"
    "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"
    "The Fall of the House of Usher"
    "The Gold-Bug"
    "Hop-Frog"
    "Ligeia"
    "The Masque of the Red Death"
    "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
    "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt"
    "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"

Poetry
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    "Al Aaraaf"
    "Annabel Lee"
    "The Bells"
    "The City in the Sea"
    "The Conqueror Worm"
    "A Dream Within a Dream"
    "Eldorado"
    "Eulalie"
    "The Haunted Palace"
    "To Helen"
    "Lenore"
    "Tamerlane"
    "The Raven"
    "Ulalume"

Other works 
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    Politian (1835) – Poe's only play
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) – Poe's only complete novel
    "The Balloon-Hoax" (1844) – A journalistic hoax printed as a true story
    "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) – Essay
    Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848) – Essay
    "The Poetic Principle" (1848) – Essay
    "The Light-House" (1849) – Poe's last incomplete work

Source: Wikipedia

Find more about him on
http://www.poemuseum.org/index.php
http://www.online-literature.com/poe/

Essential Facts

•     Poe attended the University of Virginia...until he had to drop out due to lack of money. It seems that Poe had a gambling problem, and his foster father got tired of bailing him out.
•     Broke, Poe lied about his age and joined the army. He served two years...and then got himself dismissed by court martial.
•     Poe’s short stories featuring C. Auguste Dupin shaped the modern mystery story so much that Arthur Conan Doyle compared Sherlock Holmes to Dupin, and the Mystery Writers of America give an award named the Edgar—after Poe, of course.
•     Poe’s bizarre life didn’t stop just because he died in 1849. He was buried in an unmarked grave, and when gossip finally led to a stone being ordered, it was destroyed in a train accident.
•     Ever since 1949, someone has left a bottle of cognac and some roses on Poe’s grave. Who is leaving these things? And why?

Source: http://www.enotes.com/authors/edgar-allan-poe


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Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works

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THE OVAL PORTRAIT: The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site in
Philadelphia is one of several preserved former residences of Poe
[Image from Wikipedia]