Edger Allan Poe was an American poet, writer, literary critic, and editor. Poe is famous for his short-short stories, particularly his mysterious and ghastly stories, and poetry. In the United States and American Literature, he is one of the essential members of Romanticism.
He is one of the early earliest writers who started writing short stories. Edger Allan Poe is regarded as the initiator of the genre of detective fiction. He also contributed with his writing in the newly developing science fiction genre. He is the first American writer whose sole source of earning was writing. Due to this, he suffers a financial crisis in both life and career.
The life and works of Edger Allan Poe have greatly influenced the literary world. He specialized in the fields of cryptography and cosmology. Poe and his works both appear all the way through the popular culture in music, literature, television, and films. It was his distinguishing works in the genre of mystery that the annual award known as Edgar Award is given by Mystery Writers of America.
A Short Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
Edger Allan Poe was born on 19th January 1809 to Elizabeth Poe and David Poe. Elizabeth was an English born actress, whereas David Poe was an actor and belonged to Baltimore. In1811, his mother died in Virginia. He was then taken to the home of a rich merchant, John Allan. The wife was the merchant who had not any child.
From 1815 to 1820, he was taken to England and Scotland. Over there, he received a classical education that continued even in Richmond. In 1826, he attended the University of Virginia for eleven months. He was involved in gambling in university, and after intense losses, his guardians did not permit him to continue and took him back to Richmond. In Richmond, he met Elmira Royster and engaged.
In 1827, he went to Boston and published a pamphlet of Tamerlane, Byronic poem, and Other Poems. Forced by poverty, he joined the army under the name of Edger A. Perry. However, his foster mother died which causes him to leave the army eventually, and his foster father gets him an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy.
Before leaving for the academy, Poe published a new volume containing Tamerlane, Al Aaraaf, and Minor Poems in Baltimore in 1829. Being absent for a week from a drill and classes, he was expelled from the academy. He went to New York City and bought volumes of poems, including masterpieces. The volumes contain the poems of P.B. Shelley, John Keats, and S.T. Coleridge. These poets influenced his writing greatly.
When he went back to Baltimore, he started writing his short stories. He published “MS. Found in a Bottle” in 1833 that won $50 from the weekly magazine of Baltimore. In 1835, he started working as an editor for Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. He made his reputation as a critical reviewer. He married his cousin Virginia Clemm who was only 13 years old at that time.
Because of his drinking, Poe was temporarily expelled from his job. He then went to New York City. He became a drinking addict, in order to stand in a group of people and talk well, he needs to drink slightly. Even though he would not intake intoxication, he would only appear in the public when he had taken some. From this, people started assuming that Poe was a drug addict. However, according to the mental tests, he had cut in his brain.
In 1838, he published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, long narrative prose. In this work, he combined facts with the wildest fantasies. This work is considered to be inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In 1839, he moved to Philadelphia and started working as a co-editor at Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine. He signed a contract for a monthly article. This contact made him write “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson.” These are the stories that have supernatural horror.
In 1839, the tales of Poe the Grotesque and Arabesque also appeared. In June 1840, he resigned from his job at the magazine. In 1841, he returned and edited Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine by his successor Graham. In this magazine, he published his first detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
His short story “The Golden Bud” won a $100 prize in 1843 from the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. This award gave him immense publicity. He returned to New York in 1844 and wrote the short story “The Balloon Hoax” for the magazine Sun. He started working as the sub-editor of the New York Mirror and worked under N.P. Willis. Willis became his lifelong friend.
He published his most celebrated poem “The Raven” on 28th January 1845, which made him nationwide famous. He changed his jobs several times in the following years and published different volumes of his poems and short stories.
In January 1847, his wife, Virginia Clemn, died. He went to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1848 to marry his beloved and poet Sarah Helen Whitman. Their commitment was brief. Poe had a very close but friendly relationship with both Sarah Anna Lewis and Annie Richmond. They both helped him financially. Poe presented a poetic tribute to both.
He published a lecture, “Eureka,” in 1848. It is a transcendental illustration of the universe. Some critics claim it to a masterpiece, whereas for some it is complete nonsense. In 1849, Poe went to the South and engaged to Elmira Royster. They spent a summer together happily, and Poe suffered only one or two lapses. Another great source of his happiness was his friendship with a young poet Susan Archer Talley. She was his childhood friend.
In September 1849, he left Richmond and went to Baltimore. He had a feeling of death. He died on 7th October 1849, for an unknown reason. It is assumed that he either died of drinking or from a heart attack. He was buried in Baltimore in Westminster Presbyterian Churchyard.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Writing style
Genres
The genre for which Edger Allan Poe is best known for is the Gothic genre. His works adhere to the conventions of the genre. Therefore, it appeals to the public state. His gothic fiction deals with the recurring themes of death. It also includes the physical signs of death, concerns of early burial; effects of decomposition; mourning, and the reanimation of death.
His works are considered to belong to the genre of dark Romanticism. This genre started as a reaction to transcendentalism, which is highly disliked, Poe. He called the followers of the movement of transcendentalism as “Frog-Pondian.” He also ridiculed their writings by calling it “metaphor – run mad” elapsing into “mysticism for mysticism’s sake” or “obscurity for obscurity’s sake.” In reality, Poe does not like transcendentalism but the sophists and pretenders among the transcendentalists.
Apart from horror fiction, Edger Allan Poe also wrote hoaxes, humour tales, and satires. To add comic effect in his works, he used absurd indulgence and irony. He uses the comic effect to free the readers from the conventionality of culture. The first-ever story that Poe published was “Metzengerstein.” This story is also his first horror story; however, it was initially intended as comedy ridiculing the popular genre.
He also reestablishes the genre of science fiction through his writing that responds to the newly emerging technologies. For example, the story “The Balloon-Hoax” is about the hot air balloon that emerged in his time.
Edger Allan Poe’s works are based on themes that were according to the tastes of the mass-market. To satisfy the taste of the masses, he also included the elements of pseudo-sciences like physiognomy and phrenology in his works.
Literary theory
The critical literary theories presented by Poe in his criticism are reflected in his writings. One of the best critical essays he wrote is “The Poetic Principle.” Though Poe believed that the meaning of the literary work should not be on the surface, it must be deep and undercurrent, he does not like allegory and didacticism.
For him, the works which have their meaning on the surface do not belong to art. Moreover, qualitative work must be brief and focused on one exact effect. Lastly, he also held that the writers should sensibly analyze every idea and sentiment. Poe’s essay “The Philosophy of Composition” deals with the method of writing in his masterpiece poem “The Raven.” In the essay, Poe claims that he had strictly adhered to this method.
Legacy
Along with the satanic and occult, the works of Edger Allan Poe is concerned with Romanticism. His works are also inspired by his intense dreams. He shaped his dreams with his distinctive imagery and use of language. His works have unique imaginations, elaborated techniques, objectivity, and spontaneity. He was appreciated even in his life for his clear and comprehensive criticism as an evaluator of the literature of his time, his poetic idealism and melodic gift, and his dramatic storytelling art. With his distinguished writing style; he secured an imminent position among the well-known men of letters.
Edger Allan Poe had a dual personality. This personality is also reflected in his works. The views and judgments prevailing in his time about him appear to the extent of coexistence totally different from two persons in him. He was devoted and gentle to the people he loved, whereas he was self-centered and irritable to the people he does not like.
The best fictional works of Poe are concerned with sadness and terror. However, his poetry is quite pleasant, as is his company. He admired the works of Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare. His writings have his sense of humor.
Poe was a visionary and an idealist. He desires for both the ideal of imagination and the ideal of heart. Most of his poetry is inspired by his sensitivity to the sweetness and beauty of women. For example, his poem “To One in Paradise,” “To Helen,” “Annabel Lee,” and “Eulalie” is all about women. The poems “Ligeia” and” Eleonora” are his hymns in full-tone prose to love and beauty. In the poem “Israfel,” he is taken to the world of dreams from reality through his imagination. The distinguishing characteristic of his late-year works was his “Pythian mood.”
He dodges the readers from the world’s common experiences with unnerving thoughts, fears, and impulses. Such familiar mode is present in his poetry, such as “Lenore,” “The Valley on Unrest,” “The Raven,” “Ulalume,” and “For Annie” and also in his famous short stories. He portrayed the astonishing effect of death in his tale by using a dark mood, fear, and impulses.
His works that deal with the theme of death are “The Masque of the Red Death,” The Fall of House of Usher,” “The Fact in the Case of M. Valdemar,” “The Oval Portrait,” “The Premature Burial,” and “Shadow.”
He also has themes of crime and wickedness in the stories “The Black cat,” “Berenice,” “The Imp of Perverse,” “William Morris,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado.”
The stories, “Ligeia,” “Metzengerstein,” and “Morella” deal with the themes of survival after desolation. Lastly, he also has the theme of fatality in the short stories “The man of Crowd and The Assignation.
In the short story “The Pit and the Pendulum,” he does not allow his character to become a victim of mysterious forces, he uses the suffering of forthcoming death to make his stories nerve-racking. Moreover, he also employs grotesque elements in his works that deal with the aftermath of death: corpses and decay.
Moreover, Poe also includes the minute details in his works. For instance, when in the long narratives and the description that introduces the tale or setting of the story, observe little details. He is closely associated with his power of reasoning.
Poe was proud of his logic, and he handled his logic very carefully to impress the public with his stories. He was highly praised for his problem disentanglement, thought-reading, and cryptography that he credited to characters C. Auguste Dupin and William Legard. It was these characters that made him write detective stories and science fiction.
The duality in his personality is also reflected in his art. He wrote weird and angelic poetry. His poetry has the utmost rhythm and appealing words. Similarly, his prose has suggestiveness and extravagant beauty with the superficial recklessness of persuasive motivation. However, he also wrote about the dark psychology or the plans of inexorable plots in dry and hardstyle. The duality of his mind, temper, and art are blended into a unity of structure, tone, and movement in his masterpieces. These masterpieces are the most effective and overwhelmed with various elements.
Poe also focuses on the precision of meter, structure, and language. As a critic, he formulated his own principles for the short story. He searched for the ancient unities in the plot: the unity of action, plot, and magnitude. He added mood and effects to these units. However, he was not very harsh in his principles. Though he praised brief and focused works, he also admired long works, morals, and allegories provided that they are not presented crudely. He also praised the originality in the work that was totally different from his; he was a surprisingly generous critic of minor writers.