艾德加·愛倫·坡（1809-49）生於波士頓，父母為流浪藝人。壹八壹壹年父母雙亡，由弗吉尼亞州裏士滿富商約翰·愛倫收養。愛倫夫婦把他帶往英國，壹八壹五至二○年在英國讀書。返回裏士滿（Richmond）後與愛倫反目，始終沒有和解，後者壹八三四年逝世時，遺囑中對坡只字未提。曾入佛吉尼亞大學，未幾輟學，投效美國陸軍，升為軍士長，後入西點軍校。故意犯過被開除後，在巴爾的摩、裏士滿、紐約與費城以賣文為生愛倫·坡簡介，受雇於若幹期刊，其中包括《南方文學使者》。壹八三六年和十三歲的表妹佛吉尼亞·克萊姆結婚，十年後妻子死於肺病。其後精神日益失常，終至於神智昏迷，死於巴爾的摩壹溝渠裏。出版過三本詩集∶《帖木兒》（Tamerlane，1827），《艾爾·阿拉夫》（Al Aaraaf愛倫·坡簡介，1829），《詩集》(Poems, 1831)。後來的大部分作品──詩、短篇小說、評論文章──均在雜誌上發表。短篇小說最初收入《述異集》(Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840)裏，余者收入《故事集》(Tales, 1845)。其他作品尚有研究創作心理的文章《我得之矣∶壹首散文詩》(Eureka: A Prose Poem, 1848)與《阿瑟·戈登．皮姆的故事》(The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 1838)。
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49)
"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" ("The Raven")
Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were itinerant actors who died when he was very young. He was taken into the care of one John Allan, a tobacco exporter, whose surname he took for his own middle name after 1824. Between 1815 and 1820, Poe and the Allans lived in England and the young orphan attended Manor House school in Stoke Newington. After his return to the United States, Poe went to the University of Virginia but left after he accumulated considerable gambling debts trying to make up for other money he owed. He published his first volume of poetry, Tamurlane and Other Poems anonymously and at his own expense in 1827. After this, Poe joined the army and entered West Point in 1830, although he was dishonourably discharged one year later for intentional neglect of duties.
Poe had continued writing poetry and publishing at his own expense during this period, but now he sought employment as a professional writer. As editor of the Southern Literary Messenger he increased its circulation from 500 to 3,500 copies and achieved a similar feat on a grander scale at Graham's Magazine. He began to write the short stories that would constitute his great legacy to literature and published them in magazines. At this time he was living in poverty with his aunt Mrs Clemm in Baltimore. He would marry her thirteen-year-old daughter Virginia (his cousin) in 1836, but her tuberculosis and his depression were an unhappy combination.
The first collection of Poe's stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in 1840 and contained the famous Gothic romance "The Fall of the House of Usher"。 It was the poem "The Raven" and its accompanying volume of poetry (published in 1845) that brought Poe fame, however。 Still he struggled against poverty。 He remained sadly underrated in his own time。 Even in 1846, Poe failed to sell a collection of stories for the price of $50。 He was given only $14 for Eureka and even that was on the basis that if it sold less then he would have to make up the difference。
His alcoholi *** and laudanum addiction worsened, unsurprisingly (although he found time to lecture his local temperance society on the evils of drink) and he made one attempt at suicide。 His wife passed away in 1847, and Poe himself died in appropriately tragic circumstances of heart failure, alcohol, and epilepsy or some combination of these factors in 1849。 After his death his reputation grew considerably with the enthusiastic response of Swinburne, Wilde, Rossetti and Yeats to his poetry, and of Stevenson among others to his short stories。