Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born on 19th January 1809 to Actress Eliza Poe and Actor David Poe Jr. in Boston, Massachusets. Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his poems and short tales and his literary criticism. He is also considered to be the inventor of detective story and his works have had significant influence on many writers worldwide.

Poe had one brother and one sister and his parents were touring actors. Both Poe's parents died before he was three years old. After their death, Poe was taken in by a wealthy merchant named John Allan and his wife Fanny Allan, who lived in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1815 the Allans moved to England along with Poe and Poe attended school in England till 1820. After moving back to United States, the Allans moved around a lot. During this time Poe continued his education, attending academy of Joseph H. Clarke when he was fourteen and then studying with Clarke's successor William Burke. Poe's education focused on languages and he learnt French and Latin during this time. He also wrote one of his earliest surviving poems; "Oh Tempora! Oh Mores!" in this time period.

In 1826 Poe entered the University of Virginia and there he got into gambling. He ended up owing large gambling debts, which forced him to leave University of Virginia after one year following John Allan's refusal to pay the debts for him.

In 1827 Poe published his first book, "Tamerlane and other poems" anonymously under the name "A Bostonian" at his own expense. Poe later that year enlisted in the army as a means of supporting himself. He left the army in 1829 and then with the help of John Allan he was able to get cadetship at the West Point, joining West Point in spring of 1830. In between leaving the army and joining West Point, Poe published a book entitled "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and minor poems" under his own name.

He stayed in West point for only six months and was discharged from West point for disobeying orders. However, his fellow cadets at West point gave him money to publish a third edition of the book. Poe called it a second edition though and it was entitled "Poems by Edgar A. Poe". The book was published in 1831 and it also contained his famous poems "To Helen" (another version was published in 1848) and "Israfel".

Poe then moved in with his aunt and cousin, Maria and Virginia Clemm, in Baltimore and turned to writing fiction as a means of support. His first published tale appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post on August of 1831 and was entitled "The Dream". This was followed in January of 1832 with "Metzengerstein". Later in 1832, in the Philadelphia Courier published four comic tales written by Poe, "Duke de L'Omelette", "A Tale of Jerusalem", "A Decided Loss" and "The Bargain Lost". Although these tales were comic, they all contained the subject of surviving death. In spring of 1833, Poe gathered his work into a volume called "Eleven Tales of the Arabeque". He entered six of his tales in the Saturday Visitor, a Baltimore newspaper and his tale "MS. Found in a Bottle" won the $50 prize for the best tale. During this time he also fell in love with his first cousin Virginia.

In August of 1835, Poe was hired by the The Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond with a monthly salary of $60. He moved his aunt Maria and cousin Virginia to Richmond and married Virginia, who was then 13 years old. At the Messenger, Poe not only performed all the duties of an editor (though he was not officially given credit for being the editor of the magazine till later summer of 1836), but also worked as a critic and writer. He came to be feared as a critic as he was not afraid of giving bad reviews to even respected authors. Based on Poe's work at the Messenger, the magazine became an important regional journal and its circulation increased significantly.

However, during this time Poe started drinking heavily and the drinking habit got the better of him and he was forced to leave the Messenger in January of 1837. Following that Poe first moved to New York, then to Philadelphia in 1838 and then back to New York in 1844, trying to establish a name for himself but without any major success. His literary work during this time, however established him as the inventor of detective stories with his works "The Murders In The Rue Morgue", "The Purloined Letter", and "The Mystery of Marie Roget". His poems and other literary works reflected his mastery over the art of musically flowing language. His most popular tales are the "The Pit and the Pendelum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Masque of the Red Death", though he considered his best tale to be "Ligeia".

Poe's wife Virginia died in January 1847 and Poe was devastated by her death. However, he kept on writing until his death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849.