Author profile: Edgar Allan Poe

Date of birth: January 19, 1809

Time period he wrote in: 19th century

Family life/background:

 Edgar Poe was born in Boston,

Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the
second child of English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and actor David
Poe Jr.

 He had an elder brother named William Henry Leonard Poe and a younger sister

named Rosalie Poe.

 His family sailed to the United Kingdom in 1815, and Poe attended the grammar school
for a short period in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland (where Allan was born) before re-joining
the family in London in 1816.

Where did/do they live? His work forced him to move among several
cities, but he mainly lived in Fordham, Richmond
and Boston.

Texts they have written:

 The Tell-Tale Heart

 The Murders in the Rue Morgue

 The Fall of the House of Usher

 The Raven

 The Pit and the Pendulum

Famous quotes from/about them:

1: All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

 2: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming
dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

3: Sleep, those little slices of death; Oh how I loathe them.

What inspired their work? (At least one sentence)

Poe became responsible for the financial support of his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, and he
subsequently married his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. What inspired
Poe to write was what inspires many writers: he needed money, and writing was
the only way he knew how to get it.

At least 3 interesting facts about them:

1: He was the first person to use the term ‘short story’. At least, Poe’s use of the term is
the earliest that has yet been uncovered, from 1840 – nearly 40 years earlier than the
current OED citation from 1877. This is fitting, given that Poe was a pioneer of the short
story form. 

2: The American football team the Baltimore Ravens are named in honour of Edgar Allan
Poe’s classic poem ‘The Raven’. This is the only example of a big sports team being named
after a work of literature.

3: Poe coined the word ‘tintinnabulation’ to describe the sound made by the ringing of
bells. This word was invented by Poe in his poem ‘The Bells’, where he writes, ‘Keeping
time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically
wells … From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.’

Anything else you find out about them:

 At just three years old, he was orphaned.

 His most well-known poem, The Raven, saw instant success.

 He married his 13-year-old cousin.

 The cause of his death is still unknown.

 He is celebrated as the first professional American writer.