By Brian Boone
“Happy birthday” isn’t the right phrase to use for discussing someone whose works were so deliciously melancholy or macabre, so let’s just acknowledge how Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday is January 19. (This year, he’d be turning 216 years old.) Here’s a look into the dark, chilling, and fascinating, life and work of Poe, a true all-American literary great.
What Comes Before “Poe”
The man who would eventually be professionally known as Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. At the time, his actor parents were appearing in a production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and it’s highly likely they named their baby after Edgar, a major character in that play. When Edgar Poe was three-years-old, he was orphaned and the family of businessman John Allan adopted the child, renaming him slightly to Edgar Allan Poe.
Putting the “Poe” in Poetry
Young Poe’s first idol was Lord Byron, and emulating that leader of the Romantic movement, he wrote and submitted to publishers a volume of poetry in 1822, at the age of 13. It would’ve been published right away, too, except that the headmaster of Poe’s school strongly objected to it. When Poe turned 18, that book finally hit bookstores in Boston. Credited anonymously to “A Bostonian,” Tamerlane and Other Poems enjoyed a first print run of 50 copies.
We’ll Keep This Short
One of Poe’s best-known works: 1841’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” one of the first works of short fiction widely published in the U.S. That means Poe helped to invent and popularize the entire genre of the short story, the most widespread and best-selling form of fiction writing in the country for almost a century. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” also pretty much originated detective fiction. It features the character C. Auguste Dupin, who, with a friend, solves a murder mystery via an arduous procedural process. That format would be felt in everything from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories to Law and Order and NCIS.
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Clowning Around
Edgar Allan Poe is closely associated with the spooky in general, and he invented several specific tropes. One such concept since frequently explored in horror fiction and films: the killer clown. His 1849 short story “Hop-Frog” is about a royal court jester who exacts revenge on his cruel and mocking boss by chaining him together with his cronies, dangles them from hooks, and burns them to death.
Get a Grip
Poe’s most famous work, the 1845 poem “The Raven,” about a man tormented by both grief and an ominous black bird, was inspired by a real crow. Fellow 19th century literary luminary Charles Dickens owned a bird named Grip, who was mischievous and rude. Poe loved Grip so much he made him the villain of “The Raven.”
Fighting Words
In 1846, Poe’s vicious rival Thomas Dunn English wrote 1844, which featured the disreputable, violent, alcoholic character Marmaduke Hammerhead, author of “The Black Crow” who frequently quotes Poe’s obviously inspirational “The Raven.” In addition to suing English’s publisher for libel, Poe wrote “The Cask of Amontillado,” full of references to 1844 and featuring a character reportedly based on English who is left to die by being trapped inside of a wall.
That’s So Raven
There’s only one North American sports team named after a poem: It’s the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. Edgar Allan Poe, author of “The Raven,” lived and worked in Baltimore. And ever since he died in 1849, he’s buried there, too, outside the Westminster Presbyterian Church.