tragic life of edgar allan poe full documentary biography

The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Edgar Allan Poe

In all of American literature, there might be no master of the macabre so celebrated as Edgar Allan Poe. From his unforgettable, supernatural-tinged poem "The Raven" to the haunting twist at the core of "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe's style and themes form the crux of almost all horror stories today. He knew how to create believable characters, place them in eerie settings, and leave the reader feeling chilled to the core. Millions of writers owe him a debt of gratitude.

Behind the cloak and daggers of Poe's tales, though, what was the real man like? While it would be nice if the person who wrote such scary fables could have had a happy time on Earth, the record shows that Poe's short life was instead filled with constant tragedy, heartbreak, and an enemy who tried to ruin his reputation. The real Edgar Allan Poe was quite different from the legend, but no less worthy of study.

Edgar Allan Poe was orphaned at a young age

In 1809, a boy named Edgar Poe — note, no "Allan" — was born to two traveling stage actors, as reported by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore . 

The father was David Poe, Jr., who hailed from a hardcore military family so entrenched in their ways that David had to refer to his dad as "General," according to Dr. Shelley Costa Bloomfield . Needless to say, these folks weren't happy when Junior fell in love with the talented thespian Eliza Arnold, nor when he followed her onto the stage for his own artsy career. Once married , the couple had two sons: William and Edgar. The latter boy was named after a character in Shakespeare's play  King Lear , which the couple was performing at the time. 

Sadly, David wasn't a good father. His struggles with heavy drinking, fighting, and financial hardship were stressful enough, but he also may have also resented Eliza's far more successful acting career. Whatever his problems may have been, he deserted his family, leaving Eliza alone to raise the children. By the time young Edgar was 3-years-old, Eliza came down sick and died. Apparently, David died soon afterward, though the circumstances of his demise are unknown. Regardless, this left the young children with no parents, and no safe place to go.

Edgar Allan Poe had a horrendous adoptive father

Edgar Poe was soon adopted by the Allan family: hence, he became Edgar "Allan" Poe. Unfortunately, while he got along well with his adoptive mother Frances, the thorny connection to his new dad John Allan proved to be a source of conflict, misery, and heartbreak for much of Poe's life.

Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant, wanted Poe to follow him into the family business, according to Biography, and was thus highly dismissive of Poe's literary passions. Poe, in turn, rebelled by writing poems on the back of Allan's business papers. The relationship further soured as Poe grew older, as seen in letters preserved by the National Park Service , when Allan repeatedly refused to lend Poe necessary financial assistance — despite frequent, desperate pleading from Poe — leading to the academically successful boy being unable to afford his classes, falling deep into debt, and becoming increasingly destitute. Allan, for his part, seems to have been remarkably dismissive of the boy's concerns. He once wrote Poe off as "quite miserable, sulky & ill-tempered," and bizarrely touted how magnanimous he'd been for paying for Poe's education even though he was the one whose lack of support, in fact, had caused Poe's hardships. Not the kind of guy you want as a dad, that's for sure. 

It's worth noting that, despite taking Poe in, Allan never legally adopted the boy. This spiteful move caused deeper rifts down the line.

Edgar Allan Poe was in a 'Stacy's Mom' situation

Due to the fact that Poe was so horribly young when his mother perished, he spent much of his early years trying to connect with substitute mother figures, the most notable being his foster mother Frances Allen. According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore , another of these was Jane Stith Stanard, the mother of his friend Robert, though it has been speculated — with notable evidence — that Poe, when he was going through puberty, may have developed deeper feelings for her. When situations turned stressful at the Allan household, as they often did, it was Stanard whom Poe would go to for support, and while obviously no true romantic relationship could ever form — this was, at its core, a teenage crush — Poe did have enormous love and respect for her: in addition to writing a poem that subtly compared her to Helen of Troy, Poe would, years later, describe her as "the first, purely ideal love of my soul."

Sadly, as would happen to so many close people in Poe's life, Stanard died from illness at a young age, in 1824. Poe was still merely a teenager.

Edgar Allan Poe's military career

When Edgar Allan Poe was drowning in debt, starving, and receiving no aid from John Allan, he turned to a last-ditch solution: according to  Mental Floss , he took the false identity of Edgar A. Perry, claimed to be a 22-year-old Boston clerk, and signed up for a five-year stint with the U.S. Army. 

Poe excelled in the military . He also hated it. After two years of moving up and down the East Coast, making $5 a month, and being promoted to sergeant major for artillery, Poe was desperate for a way out, and confessed his true story to his commanding officer. Miraculously, the officer was okay with letting Poe out early ... but, not-so-miraculously, he stipulated that Poe had to first make amends with his obnoxious adoptive father. Ugh.

Undeterred, Poe began writing letters to Allan. Allan, being the jerk he was, didn't respond. However, the death of Frances Allan forced the two men to reconcile, at which point Allan agreed to let Poe leave the service early ... so long as he enrolled at West Point, the United States Military Academy. Sigh. Poe did as was asked, and excelled in his studies, but when Allan remarried, Allan shut down communication with him. Poe wanted out of military life for real this time, but once again, he needed Allan's express permission to leave, and Allan wouldn't give it. So Poe solved the problem by flunking his studies, being as insubordinate as possible, and purposely getting himself kicked out of West Point.

Edgar Allan Poe had an on-again/off-again romance

Perhaps the most continual thread running through Edgar Allan Poe's love life, from beginning to end, was a woman named Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton. She was, essentially, Poe's first and last love. Unfortunately, the two never married , and their relationship always hit some, well, snags.

Sarah and Edgar were childhood friends and neighbors, according to the National Park Service , who became engaged as teenagers. When Poe left to attend the University of Virginia, the two star-crossed lovers continued with an epistolary romance ... which came to a crashing halt when Royster's father caught wind, according to the Odyssey . James Royster did not want an orphan like Poe as a son-in-law, most likely, so he intercepted their letters and left both kids thinking the other had ghosted them. When Poe returned home, perhaps hoping to reunite with her, he instead found that she had married a wealthier man in his place. Many have speculated, based on this sad tale, that Sarah may be the long lost Lenore mentioned throughout "The Raven."

However, their romance didn't end there. When Royster Shelton's husband died in 1848, Poe reached out to her again, and they rekindled their romance. His initial (or, well, second) proposal was rebuffed, but a few months later, she accepted. Tragically, the wedding bells never rang out, because 10 days before the wedding, Poe died. 

Edgar Allan Poe was the classic 'starving artist'

When you hear about famous artists who, despite changing the world, struggled to catch a break, well, Edgar Allan Poe should be near the top of the list. Despite Poe's magnificent talent, and a fierce desire for success, he spent much of his life in poverty, and his work was consistently undervalued. According to Mental Floss , his first poetry collection, Tamerlane , ended up being a financial disaster, which probably wasn't helped by his unwise decision to use the pseudonym "A Bostonian." His second book, Poems , only got off the ground when Poe convinced at least 131 fellow cadets in the Army to give him a buck and a quarter to get it running. Even when he was shopping for a publisher for his landmark poem, "The Raven," the Vintage News says that one magazine not only rejected it, but gave Poe $15 in sympathy cash. When he finally sold the poem to The American Review , it netted only $9.

Fortunately, "The Raven" made Poe mainstream enough to live as a professional writer. He became a household name, according to the Poe Museum, gave lectures, and ran his own magazine. Not so fortunately, his personal life was a mess — the health of his wife, Virginia, worsened by the day — and his finances weren't particularly sturdy. According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore , his annual salary totaled $624. With inflation in mind, that's equivalent to under $20 grand, in today's economy. 

Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore'

Death happens. Haunting as it may be, it's quite ordinary. It's the inevitable conclusion to every life story. That said, the sheer number of tragic, heartbreaking deaths that Edgar Allan Poe faced in his life — to say nothing of his own death — were far more than ordinary. Looking past the early deaths of his parents and Mrs. Stanard, another tragedy in the young Poe's life was the loss of his foster mother, Frances, who loved him like John Allan didn't. According to the Edgar A. Poe Calendar , Poe was completely unaware of her failing health, and when she died, the Army discharged him so late that he missed the funeral. 

Years later, Poe's first wife passed away due to fatal complications from tuberculosis, according to Biography, which was the same disease that killed his mother and his brother. Another incident that particularly stung was the death of John Allan. After all those years of feuding, Allan elected to leave Poe with no inheritance, while instead providing for an unknown child, born out of wedlock, who Poe had never met, despite the fact that Poe was, at this time, living broke and penniless. 

Was Edgar Allan Poe an alcoholic or a drug addict?

Needless to say, Edgar Allan Poe had a hard life. He suffered from a lack of unconditional love, a troubled upbringing, and no reliable support system. Because of these struggles, according to Britannica , he often turned to alcohol, particularly when dealing with stressful social situations that required him to be in a good mood around people. While it's impossible to properly diagnose someone who lived hundreds of years ago, it does seem likely that Poe was an alcoholic. He drank more often than his peers, and while he didn't usually reach the point of being inebriated, his drunken instances always seemed to occur, embarrassingly enough, on the public stage.

However, the reality of Poe's very genuine suffering is often clouded by the false stories told by those who disliked him. Poe's enemies often tried to paint him as a town drunk, a drug addict, or someone who only wrote under the influence of chemical stimulants. None of these things were true, according to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore : as far as drugs go, Poe only seems to have occasionally used opium for medical purposes, as was common in that time, and once claimed to have taken drugs as part of a suicide attempt. So either way, while Poe may have been an alcoholic, he absolutely was not a drug addict. 

Only the good die young

Edgar Allan Poe was only 40 when he died, less than two weeks away from marrying his beloved Sarah. He was young, destitute for much of his life, criticized by his peers, and often unhappy.

Perhaps the most troubling thing about Poe's death, though, is that the circumstances remain a mystery. A week beforehand, according to Biography, his fiancée expressed concerns about his health, and his doctor told him not to travel. He did, anyway. Strange lapses in Poe's behavior occurred at this time — for example, he completely misplaced his luggage, and was unable to find it — until he was suddenly discovered sprawled out in the gutter outside a voting booth location, according to the Smithsonian , wearing someone else's clothes, unable to move, and screaming at hallucinations. During this pained time, he repeatedly called out for some unknown figure named "Reynolds," and died four days later.

What happened? As History explains, many people were quick to blame alcohol, but his attending physician disputed this. Various diseases have been suggested, such as tuberculosis and brain lesions. One of the most prevalent theories, due to the voting booth location where Poe was found, is that he may have been a victim of something called "cooping," a horrifying voter fraud scam from the time: cooping occurred when corrupt politicians paid criminals to drug and poison innocent bystanders, particularly the homeless, and then forced them to vote at location after location until they dropped dead. 

Edgar Allan Poe couldn't catch a break even in death

Sadly, Edgar Allan Poe's mistreatment did not cease after his death.

According to Biography, his funeral was hastily conducted only a day after his death, resulting in only seven people attending, one of whom had nothing but nasty words about the author . Initially buried in an unmarked grave , it took 11 years for Poe's cousin to purchase a real monument for him, but before the piece could be mounted, it was destroyed when ... uh, a speeding train came off its rails, and crashed directly into the stone carver's place of business. Can't make this stuff up. It took nearly three decades before an assembly of students and teachers collected the funds to give Poe the monument he deserved, and even then, his coffin accidentally shattered to pieces during the transfer. Seriously? 

It was around this same time that, finally, Poe's deceased wife was buried beside him: until that point, her remains had been placed in their landlord's family cemetery , which had subsequently been built over by developers. Since then, thankfully, both of them have remained in their rightful place.

Edgar Allan Poe's biggest hater shaped his legacy

Much of the darker Edgar Allan Poe legends and myths that circulate today, sadly, stem not from the writer's life, but his obituary. This mean-spirited block of text was penned by the Reverend Rufus Griswold. The not-so-holy man wrote this obituary under the pen name Ludwig, and he made sure it was filled with outright slander that portrayed Poe as being the drunken, drug-addicted, unsavory character that many still paint him as today.

Griswold, as one might imagine, had a personal reason for besmirching the dead, as explained by the Poe Museum. Over the years, the two men had gone back and forth between being friends, enemies, and literary rivals, and Poe's public critiques of Griswold's work, when he was running his magazine The Messenger , did not go forgotten. Now, in the 21st century, any writer should be advised not to get antsy about negative reviews: they happen, and it's okay. Griswold, though, was such a bitter little man that he followed his nasty, deceptive obituary an equally nasty, deceptive biography about Poe's entire life. 

Ironically, Griswold's portrait of Poe as a dark, disturbed figure ended up increasing his enemy's posthumous fame, while Griswold himself has now become a mere footnote in literary history ... which is, frankly, an appropriate fate for such a major-league jerk.

Edgar Allan Poe has not been forgotten

In life, Edgar Allan Poe did not receive the full recognition he deserved. In death, though, he has been hailed as America's Shakespeare, according to American Heritage Trees , and many of the lies that "Ludwig" spread about him have been publicly dismissed. There are museums and societies dedicated to Poe's life, and works like "The Pit and the Pendulum" were probably your favorite stories that you studied in high school English.  

Perhaps the most amazing tribute to Poe's legacy was the example set by an anonymous person identified as "the Poe Toaster." From 1948 until 2009, according to the Smithsonian , this masked figure rose from the shadows once a year, on the anniversary of Poe's birthday, to leave a bottle of cognac and three red roses on the author 's grave. Who was the Poe Toaster? Nobody knows. The Poe Toaster never sought fame or attention, even as an increasingly large crowd of onlookers began taking note of his annual ritual, and it is believed that the original Toaster may have actually retired in 1999, passing the mantle down to his son. 

The 2009 end of this tradition, it is speculated, may be due to increased media attention. These days, frankly, all grand mysteries tend to get killed by Twitter and Facebook. That said, this tradition has been continued by the Maryland Historical Society, who now send their own Poe Toaster to the author 's grave every year, to pay their respects to one of dark literature's greatest champions.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer and critic famous for his dark, mysterious poems and stories, including “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

• Who Was Edgar Allan Poe?

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet , critic, and editor in the 19 th century best known for his evocative short stories and poems that captured the interest of readers worldwide. His imaginative storytelling and tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story. Many of Poe’s works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” became literary classics. Some aspects of Poe’s life, like his literature, are shrouded in mystery, and the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death in 1849 at age 40.

Quick Facts

Army and west point, writing career as a critic and poet, poems: “the raven” and “annabel lee”, short stories, legacy and museum.

FULL NAME: Edgar Allan Poe BORN: January 19, 1809 DIED: October 7, 1849 BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Massachusetts SPOUSE: Virginia Clemm Poe (1836-1847) ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Edgar Allan Poe was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, in Boston. Edgar never really knew his biological parents: Elizabeth Arnold Poe, a British actor, and David Poe Jr., an actor who was born in Baltimore. His father left the family early in Edgar’s life, and his mother died from tuberculosis when he was only 2.

Separated from his brother, William, and sister, Rosalie, Poe went to live with his foster parents, John and Frances Allan, in Richmond, Virginia. John was a successful tobacco merchant there. Edgar and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he had a more difficult relationship with John.

By age 13, Poe was a prolific poet, but his literary talents were discouraged by his headmaster and by John, who preferred that young Edgar follow him in the family business. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan’s business papers.

Money was also an issue between Poe and John. Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, where he excelled in his classes. However, he didn’t receive enough money from John to cover all of his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference but ended up in debt.

He returned home only to face another personal setback—his neighbor and fiancée Sarah Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe moved to Boston.

In 1827, around the time he published his first book, Poe joined the U.S. Army. Two years later, he learned that his mother, Frances, was dying of tuberculosis, but by the time he returned to Richmond, she had already died.

While in Virginia, Poe and his father briefly made peace with each other, and John helped Poe get an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Poe excelled at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties.

During his time at West Point, Poe had fought with John, who had remarried without telling him. Some have speculated that Poe intentionally sought to be expelled to spite his father, who eventually cut ties with Poe.

After leaving West Point, Poe published his third book and focused on writing full-time. He traveled around in search of opportunity, living in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. In 1834, John Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will, but providing for an illegitimate child Allan had never met.

Poe, who continued to struggle living in poverty, got a break when one of his short stories won a contest in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter . He began to publish more short stories and, in 1835, landed an editorial position with the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. Poe developed a reputation as a cut-throat critic, writing vicious reviews of his contemporaries. His scathing critiques earned him the nickname the “Tomahawk Man.”

His tenure at the magazine proved short, however. Poe’s aggressive reviewing style and sometimes combative personality strained his relationship with the publication, and he left the magazine in 1837. His problems with alcohol also played a role in his departure, according to some reports.

Poe went on to brief stints at Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine , Graham’s Magazine , as well as The Broadway Journal , and he also sold his work to Alexander’s Weekly Messenger , among other journals.

In 1844, Poe moved to New York City. There, he published a news story in The New York Sun about a balloon trip across the Atlantic Ocean that he later revealed to be a hoax. His stunt grabbed attention, but it was his publication of “The Raven,” in 1845, that made Poe a literary sensation.

That same year, Poe found himself under attack for his stinging criticisms of fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . Poe claimed that Longfellow, a widely popular literary figure, was a plagiarist, which resulted in a backlash against Poe.

Despite his success and popularity as a writer, Poe continued to struggle financially, and he advocated for higher wages for writers and an international copyright law.

Poe self-published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems , in 1827. His second poetry collection, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems , was published in 1829.

As a critic at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond from 1835 to 1837, Poe published some of his own works in the magazine, including two parts of his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym . Later on came poems such as “Ulalume” and “The Bells.”

“The Raven”

Poe’s poem “The Raven,” published in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror , is considered among the best-known poems in American literature and one of the best of Poe’s career. An unknown narrator laments the demise of his great love Lenore and is visited by a raven, who insistently repeats one word: “Nevermore.” In the work, which consists of 18 six-line stanzas, Poe explored some of his common themes: death and loss.

“Annabel Lee”

This lyric poem again explores Poe’s themes of death and loss and might have been written in memory of his beloved wife, Virginia, who died two years prior its publication. The poem was published on October 9, 1849, two days after Poe’s death, in the New York Tribune .

In late 1830s, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque , a collection of short stories. It contained several of his most spine-tingling tales, including “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Ligeia,” and “William Wilson.”

In 1841, Poe launched the new genre of detective fiction with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” His literary innovations earned him the nickname “Father of the Detective Story.” A writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for “The Gold Bug,” a suspenseful tale of secret codes and hunting treasure.

“The Black Cat”

Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” was published in 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post . In it, the narrator, a one-time animal lover, becomes an alcoholic who begins abusing his wife and black cat. By the macabre story’s end, the narrator observes his own descent into madness as he kills his wife, a crime his black cat reports to the police. The story was later included in the 1845 short story collection, Tales by Edgar Allan Poe .

Later in his career, Poe continued to work in different forms, examining his own methodology and writing in general in several essays, including “The Philosophy of Composition,” “The Poetic Principle,” and “The Rationale of Verse.” He also produced the thrilling tale, “The Cask of Amontillado.”

From 1831 to 1835, Poe lived in Baltimore, where his father was born, with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. He began to devote his attention to Virginia; his cousin became his literary inspiration as well as his love interest. The couple married in 1836 when she was only 13 years old and he was 27.

In 1847, at the age of 24—the same age when Poe’s mother and brother also died—Virginia passed away from tuberculosis. Poe was overcome by grief following her death, and although he continued to work, he suffered from poor health and struggled financially until his death in 1849.

Poe died on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore at age 40.

His final days remain somewhat of a mystery. Poe left Richmond on ten days earlier, on September 27, and was supposedly on his way to Philadelphia. On October 3, he was found in Baltimore in great distress. Poe was taken to Washington College Hospital, where he died four days later. His last words were “Lord, help my poor soul.”

At the time, it was said that Poe died of “congestion of the brain.” But his actual cause of death has been the subject of endless speculation. Some experts believe that alcoholism led to his demise while others offer up alternative theories. Rabies, epilepsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning are just some of the conditions thought to have led to the great writer’s death.

Shortly after his passing, Poe’s reputation was badly damaged by his literary adversary Rufus Griswold. Griswold, who had been sharply criticized by Poe, took his revenge in his obituary of Poe, portraying the gifted yet troubled writer as a mentally deranged drunkard and womanizer. He also penned the first biography of Poe, which helped cement some of these misconceptions in the public’s minds.

Although Poe never had financial success in his lifetime, he has become one of America’s most enduring writers. His works are as compelling today as they were more than a century ago. An innovative and imaginative thinker, Poe crafted stories and poems that still shock, surprise, and move modern readers. His dark work influenced writers including Charles Baudelaire , Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Stephane Mallarme.

The Baltimore home where Poe stayed from 1831 to 1835 with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter, Poe’s cousin and future wife Virginia, is now a museum. The Edgar Allan Poe House offers a self-guided tour featuring exhibits on Poe’s foster parents, his life and death in Baltimore, and the poems and short stories he wrote while living there, as well as memorabilia including his chair and desk.

• The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.
• Lord, help my poor soul.
• Sound loves to revel near a summer night.
• But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.
• They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
• The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
• 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.
• And now—have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?—now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart.
• All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
• I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active—not more happy—nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
• [I]f you wish to forget anything upon the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.
• Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Watch “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe” on HISTORY Vault

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Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive 1x56

Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive  is a docudrama that tells the fascinating and revealing story of one of the world’s best known—and most misunderstood—writers. The film explores the misrepresentations of Poe as an alcoholic madman akin to the narrators of his horror stories and reveals the way in which more than any other writer of his time, and even our own time, Poe tapped into what it means to be a human being in our modern and sometimes frightening world.

Starring Tony® Award-winning and Emmy® Award-nominated actor Denis O’Hare ( American Horror Story, The Good Wife ),  Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive draws on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to tell the real story of the notorious author and to help us bring new understanding to this unique American writer’s life and his place in popular culture.

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Edgar Allan Poe: The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe

• Episode aired Oct 27, 1994

Descend into the dark world and tragic life of the melancholy author who is the uncontested master of the macabre, and hear excerpts from his famous works. Descend into the dark world and tragic life of the melancholy author who is the uncontested master of the macabre, and hear excerpts from his famous works. Descend into the dark world and tragic life of the melancholy author who is the uncontested master of the macabre, and hear excerpts from his famous works.

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• Edgar Allan Poe

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• Aug 15, 2015
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Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive

Written and directed by Eric Stange (THE WAR THAT MADE AMERICA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: MURDER AT HARVARD), the documentary EDGAR ALLAN POE: BURIED ALIVE draws on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to tell the real story of the notorious author.

Starring Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated actor Denis O’Hare (THIS IS US, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, TAKE ME OUT) and narrated by Oscar- and Tony-nominated, two-time Golden Globe-winner Kathleen Turner, EDGAR ALLAN POE: BURIED ALIVE explores the misrepresentations of Poe as a drug-addled madman akin to the narrators of his horror stories.

This caricature is thanks, in large part, to a high-profile obituary filled with falsehoods, written by his literary rival Rufus W. Griswold. Determined to re-invent American literature, Poe was an influential – and brutally honest – literary critic and magazine editor, who also invented the detective protagonist with his character C. Auguste Dupin, refined the science fiction genre and popularized short stories, actually writing more comedies than horror.

An orphan in search of family, love and literary fame, Poe struggled with alcoholism and was also a product of early 19th century American urban life: depressed from the era’s culture of death due to the high mortality rate and the struggles of living in poverty. Poe famously died under mysterious circumstances and his cause of death remains unknown.

“The mystery around Poe’s death is the least of it,” said filmmaker Eric Stange. “The real question at the heart of this film is why Edgar Allan Poe continues to be one of the most popular writers in the history of Western literature – and one of the most misunderstood.”

Filmed in Boston Harbor’s historic Fort Independence at Castle Island, EDGAR ALLAN POE: BURIED ALIVE combines dramatized re-enactments with O’Hare of key moments in Poe’s life, readings from Poe’s works by O’Hare, Oscar-nominated actor Chris Sarandon (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, DOG DAY AFTERNOON) and actor Ben Schnetzer (SNOWDEN, GOAT, PRIDE) and interviews with authors including Marilynne Robinson (GILEAD), Matthew Pearl (THE POE SHADOW), Jeffrey Meyers (EDGAR ALLAN POE: HIS LIFE AND LEGACY) and Zach Dundas (THE GREAT DETECTIVE), director Roger Corman (Poe film cycle including House of Usher) and others to reveal how Poe tapped into what it means to be human in a modern and sometimes frightening world.

“America loves creepy horror stories, and there is a good reason why Poe is still taught in every high school – he is just the all-time master. Best of all, now the series has its own spooky Halloween episode,” said Michael Kantor, American Masters series executive producer.

Eric Stange

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What influence did Edgar Allan Poe have?

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What are Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known works?

Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known works include the poems “To Helen” (1831), “ The Raven ” (1845), and “ Annabel Lee ” (1849); the short stories of wickedness and crime “ The Tell-Tale Heart ” (1843) and “ The Cask of Amontillado ” (1846); and the supernatural horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839).

Edgar Allan Poe is credited with initiating the modern detective story , developing the Gothic horror story , and being a significant early forerunner of the science fiction form. Poe’s literary criticism , which put great stress upon correctness of language, metre, and structure and the importance of achieving a unity of mood or effect, shaped literary theory.

Edgar Allan Poe turned up in a tavern in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 3, 1849, in bad shape and nearly unresponsive and was soon admitted to a hospital. He drifted in and out of consciousness, hallucinating and speaking nonsense. On October 7 he died, although whether from drinking ,  heart failure , or other causes remains uncertain .

Edgar Allan Poe (born January 19, 1809, Boston , Massachusetts , U.S.—died October 7, 1849, Baltimore , Maryland) was an American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor who is famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre . His tale “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) initiated the modern detective story , and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His “The Raven” (1845) numbers among the best-known poems in the national literature .

Poe was the son of the English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe, Jr., an actor from Baltimore. After his mother died in Richmond , Virginia, in 1811, he was taken into the home of John Allan, a Richmond merchant (presumably his godfather), and of his childless wife. He was later taken to Scotland and England (1815–20), where he was given a classical education that was continued in Richmond. For 11 months in 1826 he attended the University of Virginia , but his gambling losses at the university so incensed his guardian that he refused to let him continue, and Poe returned to Richmond to find his sweetheart, (Sarah) Elmira Royster, engaged. He went to Boston, where in 1827 he published a pamphlet of youthful Byronic poems, Tamerlane, and Other Poems . Poverty forced him to join the army under the name of Edgar A. Perry, but, on the death of Poe’s foster mother, John Allan purchased his release from the army and helped him get an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Before going, Poe published a new volume at Baltimore, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829). He successfully sought expulsion from the academy, where he was absent from all drills and classes for a week. He proceeded to New York City and brought out a volume of Poems , containing several masterpieces, some showing the influence of John Keats , Percy Bysshe Shelley , and Samuel Taylor Coleridge . He then returned to Baltimore, where he began to write stories. In 1833 his “ MS. Found in a Bottle ” won $50 from a Baltimore weekly, and by 1835 he was in Richmond as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger . There he made a name as a critical reviewer and married his young cousin Virginia Clemm, who was only 13. Poe seems to have been an affectionate husband and son-in-law.

Poe was dismissed from his job in Richmond, apparently for drinking, and went to New York City. Drinking was in fact to be the bane of his life. To talk well in a large company he needed a slight stimulant, but a glass of sherry might start him on a spree; and, although he rarely succumbed to intoxication, he was often seen in public when he did. This gave rise to the conjecture that Poe was a drug addict, but according to medical testimony he had a brain lesion. While in New York City in 1838 he published a long prose narrative, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym , combining (as so often in his tales) much factual material with the wildest fancies. It is considered one inspiration of Herman Melville ’s Moby Dick . In 1839 he became coeditor of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in Philadelphia . There a contract for a monthly feature stimulated him to write “William Wilson” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” stories of supernatural horror. The latter contains a study of a neurotic now known to have been an acquaintance of Poe, not Poe himself.

Later in 1839 Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque appeared (dated 1840). He resigned from Burton’s about June 1840 but returned in 1841 to edit its successor, Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine , in which he printed “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” —the first detective story. In 1843 his “The Gold Bug” won a prize of $100 from the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper , which gave him great publicity. In 1844 he returned to New York , wrote “The Balloon Hoax” for the Sun , and became subeditor of the New York Mirror under N.P. Willis, thereafter a lifelong friend. In the New York Mirror of January 29, 1845, appeared, from advance sheets of the American Review , his most famous poem, “The Raven,” which gave him national fame at once. Poe then became editor of the Broadway Journal , a short-lived weekly, in which he republished most of his short stories, in 1845. During this last year the now-forgotten poet Frances Sargent Locke Osgood pursued Poe. Virginia did not object, but “Fanny’s” indiscreet writings about her literary love caused great scandal. His The Raven and Other Poems and a selection of his Tales came out in 1845, and in 1846 Poe moved to a cottage at Fordham (now part of New York City), where he wrote for Godey’s Lady’s Book (May–October 1846) “The Literati of New York City”—gossipy sketches on personalities of the day, which led to a libel suit.

Poe’s wife, Virginia, died in January 1847. The following year he went to Providence , Rhode Island, to woo Sarah Helen Whitman , a poet. There was a brief engagement. Poe had close but platonic entanglements with Annie Richmond and with Sarah Anna Lewis, who helped him financially. He composed poetic tributes to all of them. In 1848 he also published the lecture “ Eureka,” a transcendental “explanation” of the universe, which has been hailed as a masterpiece by some critics and as nonsense by others. In 1849 he went south, had a wild spree in Philadelphia, but got safely to Richmond, where he finally became engaged to Elmira Royster, by then the widowed Mrs. Shelton, and spent a happy summer with only one or two relapses. He enjoyed the companionship of childhood friends and an unromantic friendship with a young poet, Susan Archer Talley.

Poe had some forebodings of death when he left Richmond for Baltimore late in September. There he died, although whether from drinking, heart failure , or other causes was still uncertain in the 21st century. He was buried in Westminster Presbyterian churchyard in Baltimore.

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The tragic life of edgar allan poe.

The triumphant and tragic story of the great poet, short story writer, and master of the macabre. Blessed by a genius that brought him many successes as a writer, Poe was plagued by alcoholism, gambling debts, and lost loves.

A&E Television Networks Biography Films

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Review by Tigi ★★★

what a life you’ve lived edgar allen poe

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for a straight week I couldn’t sleep unless this was playing … something comforting, something gothic, concerning child marriage, tuberculosis, etc. etc.  • you too can watch it via this link!

Review by Sasha ★★★

I wish they had more on his mind-state

Review by Horatio Perry ★★★

Watched for English class. It's alr but it was kinda gross how they tried to rationalize Poe's marriage to Virginia.

Review by Harbors ★★★

"Unfortunately life kept providing inspiration for his work."

Print that on a T-shirt and carve it into a headstone.

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Descend into the dark world and tragic life of the melancholy author who is the uncontested master of the macabre, and hear excerpts from his famous works.

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• Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
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Nevermore - The Tragic Life of Edgar Allan Poe

This episode talks about the life of Edgar Allan Poe. The author of many classic horror stories and great poems about love and loss, his life was filled with tragedy and loneliness.

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The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849 (1987), title page and table of contents

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Title page:

THE POE LOG

A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849

D WIGHT T HOMAS AND D AVID K. J ACKSON

G. K. Hall & Co. Boston 1987

Table of Contents

Table of Illustrations

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The text for this electronic version of this book was taken from an original printed form, revised for XHTML/CSS and to follow our own formatting preferences. Pagination of the original edition has been included. Although considerable effort has been made to be true to the original printed edition, some modifications have been made in formatting for this electronic presentation.

Portions of The Poe Log are based on Dwight Thomas’ 1978 disseration on Poe in Philadelphia .

All material in this edition is protected by copyright, exclusively held by the authors, Dwight Rembert Thomas and David K. Jackson. Permission has been obtained by the Poe Society of Baltimore from Dr. Thomas and the estate of David K. Jackson to provide this electronic edition for academic and research purposes only. The Poe Society of Baltimore asks all users of this material to respect the authors’ copyright, and not to exceed what would typically be considered as fair use.

[S:0 - TPL, 1987)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - The Poe Log - Title page and contents

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Edgar Allan Poe A&E Biography, Easy Video Lesson or Sub Plan, PDF & Google Drive

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Description.

Help students understand the tragic life of Edgar Allan Poe with this print-and-teach video lesson featuring a question set designed to work with A&E Biography’s “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe,” a free high-quality 43-minute episode available on the A&E Biography YouTube channel and a third-party website. (Video links included.)

The video covers the major events of Edgar Allan Poe’s tragic life and includes small slices of his famous works, including “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee.”

This 5-page download (PDF + Google Drive version of student handout) includes:

• A single-page of suggested lesson procedures you can leave for your sub, if needed.

• Links to the free video content.

• A two-page attractively designed question sheet for students to use not only as they view the video, but also to reflect on deeper-thinking questions once the video has ended.

• A two-page detailed answer key to help guide class discussion when reviewing answers and help make grading papers a snap.

Please note: This video includes content that is entirely appropriate for the classroom; however, there are two gothic art pieces included that very briefly show bare breasts. If this would be a concern for your student population, please preview the full video here before purchasing these companion lesson materials.

Want more high-quality Edgar Allan Poe materials?

Click here for my interactive lesson on Poe’s classic poem, “The Raven.”

Click here for lit. analysis and non-fiction work connected to his grizzly tale, “The Black Cat.”

Click here to grab a free two-day lesson on Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.”

Want more multimedia activities like this one? Click here to scroll through my entire collection of video-based lessons: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Laura-Randazzo/Category/Video-Based-Lessons-496064

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