Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, orphaned young and raised by foster parents in Richmond, Virginia, after his actor parents died. He briefly attended the University of Virginia and West Point but left both due to financial and disciplinary issues, enlisting in the army and publishing his first poetry collection in Boston. Renowned for pioneering the detective story with 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' and achieving fame with 'The Raven' in 1845, Poe struggled financially despite his influence on Gothic fiction and Romanticism, dying mysteriously in Baltimore at age 40.