The Master of Macabre, the Father of American Gothic, Detective Fiction, and the Short Story, Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Best known for his dark tales of horror, psychological terror, and madness, Poe’s own life was marked by both internal and external tragedies that undoubtedly shaped his work. 

Born to traveling actor parents as Edgar Poe, his father, David Poe Jr., abandoned the family, leaving Poe and his two siblings with their actress mother, Elizabeth “Eliza” Arnold Hopkins Poe, who died a year later from tuberculosis. While he was much too young (only two years old) to truly remember his birth mother, she was the first in a long string of women he loved that he would later lose.  

After the death of his birth mother, Poe and his siblings were split up and sent to live with separate families. Poe was left in the care of John and Frances Allan, a well-to-do family from Richmond, Virginia. Rechristened Edgar Allan Poe, he went on to live a comfortable early life with his foster family. He was educated at private academies and even traveled abroad. By all accounts, Poe was close to his foster mother, but his relationship with his foster father worsened over time. By the time he was an adult, Poe was disowned by the Allan family altogether.

 

After a failed attempt at the University of Virginia, where Poe’s gambling left him in severe debt, he enrolled in the U.S. Army in 1827. It was around this time in his life that he began to publish poetry seriously, releasing Tamerlane and Other Poems the same year. In 1829, his foster mother, Frances Allan, died, marking the second loss of a prominent female figure in his life. That same year he published his second book of poems, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. 

 

After a stint in the army, he attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he was dishonorably discharged for neglect of duty in 1831. Ultimately he chose a life as a writer over military service. Most notably, he was the first American author to try to make a professional living as a writer. He published his third volume of poetry, Poems, in 1831.

 

From that point on, he worked as a writer, editor, and literary critic for several newspapers and magazines, traveling around cities on the East coast from Richmond, Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts. 

 

He published his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1839, which included one of his most famous short stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher". In 1841, he released “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” the first modern detective story, which would later go on to inspire the author of the most famous detective of all time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

Murder, death, madness, grief, and psychological horror were common themes within his works, which fit with the dour spirit of the Victorian age. Indeed, this time period saw a rise in Gothic literature and early works of horror. He continued to publish his stories and poems in newspapers and magazines to mixed critical success. 

 

Although Poe’s work would eventually gain widespread respect, he never achieved true financial success during his lifetime and constantly struggled to earn a living. While reviews over his work were mixed, his first undeniable success came with the publication of his poem “The Raven,” which was published in The Evening Mirror in 1845 and became instantly popular among the literary crowd. The story of a man gone mad with grief over the death of his beloved is undoubtedly one of Poe’s most recognizable works. Considering the tragedy that marred Poe’s personal life up to that point, it is easy to see where he found inspiration. 

 

In 1836, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. The marriage lasted eleven years before Virginia’s death in 1847. The couple produced no children. Poe’s most prolific writing period coincided with Virginia’s contraction of tuberculosis in 1841, the disease which ultimately claimed her life. As there was no cure, Poe had to helplessly watch his wife slowly succumb to the illness. This caused him to sink into a deep depression and, eventually, alcoholism. 

 

In a letter to George W. Eveleth, Poe wrote: 

Perhaps befitting of a master of mystery and horror, Poe’s death has been the cause of much speculation. On October 3, 1849, he was found in a state of delirium lying in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland after last being seen a week earlier in Richmond, Virginia.  No one knew how he had gotten there, and no one can agree on what exactly caused his state of delirium or his death. He remained in a state of semi-consciousness for the four days leading up to his death on Sunday, October 7, 1849. To this day, no one can say what happened during Poe’s last week on Earth. 

 

Poe’s impact on literature cannot be overstated or underappreciated. He popularized and developed the short story format with works like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Cask of Amantillado.” He created the detective genre with “The Murders of the Rue Morgue,” and his poems such as “Annabel Lee” are filled with hauntingly beautiful lyrics that perfectly capture the narrator’s pain and devastation. The Edgar Award, one of the most prestigious awards for works in the mystery genre, is offered by the Mystery Writers of America every year. 

 

Nearly a century after his death, a lone, anonymous figure dressed in black could be spotted at Poe's gravesite in Baltimore, Maryland every year on the poet's birthday. The “Poe Toaster” as he came to be known would leave three roses and a bottle of cognac on the Poe's grave before disappearing. This tradition went on for nearly 75 years, but the Poe Toaster was never identified. 

 

Last Halloween, NYPL released its latest edition of Insta Novels: Poe's "The Raven". This version of the classic poem was illustrated by Studio Aka (@studioaka) and is available to read on the Library's Instagram account  (@nypl).

 

In this same tradition of honoring an American Master of Literature, we’ve gathered together a list of recommendations for all those interested in walking the line between sanity and madness. 

 

Collections

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and Related Tales by Edgar Allan Poe; edited with an introduction and notes by J. Gerald Kennedy
Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a pivotal work in which Poe calls attention to the act of writing and to the problem of representing the truth. It is an archetypal American story of escape from domesticity tracing a young man's rite of passage through a series of terrible brushes with death during a fateful sea voyage. Included are eight related tales which further illuminate Pym by their treatment of persistent themes--fantastic voyages, gigantic whirlpools, and premature burials--as well as its relationship to Poe's art and life.
 

 

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews by Edgar Allan Poe ; edited with an introduction and notes by David Galloway
This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates an intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. "The Fall of the House of Usher" describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In "The Tell Tale Heart," a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Cask of Amontillado" explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate.


 

The Fall of the House of Usher: And Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe ; with an introduction by Stephen Marlowe and a new afterword by Regina Marler
A collection of fourteen of the author's best-known tales of mystery and the macabre includes "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Fall of the House of Usher," in which a visitor to a gloomy mansion finds a childhood friend dying under the spell of a family curse.

Poetry

Graphic Novel

Illustrated

Annotated 

Inspired By Poe

DVD

Extraordinary Tales (2016)
Five of Edgar Allan Poe's best-known stories are brought to vivid life in this heart-pounding animated anthology. Murderous madmen, sinister villains and cloaked ghouls stalk the darkened corridors of Poe's imagination, as his haunting tales are given a terrifying new twist by some of the most beloved figures in horror film history. Include: The tell-tale heart; The fall of the house of Usher; The masque of the red death; The pit and the pendulum; and The facts in the case of Mr. Valedemar.

 

 

For the Young Ones

Interested in introducing your little one to tales of the macabre? Check out our Remembering Charles Addams: Children's Picture Book Edition and Middle School Edition recommendation list. 

 

Edgar and the Tattle-Tale Heart by Jennifer Adams, illustrations by Ron Stucki
What will Edgar do when he accidentally breaks a statue sitting on a dresser? Will his sister, Lenore, tattle on him? Will Edgar tell his mother the truth?

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’sThe Tell-Tale Heart, little lit lovers will delight in this new adventure with characters illustrated in a most “poe-etic” way.

 

Who was Edgar Allan Poe? by Jim Gigliotti ; illustrated by Tim Foley ; cover illustration by Nancy Harrison
Filled with broken hearts and black ravens, Edgar Allan Poe's ghastly tales have delighted readers for centuries. Born in Boston in 1809, Poe was orphaned at age two. He was soon adopted by a Virginia family who worked as tombstone merchants. In 1827 he enlisted in the Army and subsequently failed out of West Point. His first published story, The Raven, was a huge success, but his joy was overshadowed by the death of his wife. Poe devoted his life to writing and his tragic life often inspired his work. He is considered to be the inventor of detective fiction and the father of American mystery writers. His work continues to influence popular culture through films, music, literature, and television.
 

Rare Beasts (Edgar & Ellen, Book 1) by Charles Ogden
Ages: 8+
Twins Edgar and Ellen live alone—their parents disappeared years ago, and who can blame them? —in the quaint, little town of Nod's Limbs, in a grim, gray house overlooking the cemetery and the junkyard. They spend their days avoiding Heimertz, the mysterious accordion-playing caretaker; pestering Pet, a hairy, one-eyed creature of indeterminate species and gender; and wreaking havoc on the hapless citizens of Nod's Limbs.

But wreaking havoc can incur expenses, so the twins come up with a unique fund-raising scheme: They'll nab the pets of Nod's Limbs and transform them into exotic animals they can sell for big bucks. Not a bad plan, if one of the purloined pets wasn't a lethargic python with a raging appetite . . .

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Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

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Book descriptions taken from NYPL catalog unless otherwise noted.