A compelling biography of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and his vast influence on literature and letters Poe reveals the writer as an original - a luminous literary theorist, erratic genius, and analyst par excellence of human obsession and compulsion Celebrated poet, master of the horror tale, patron saint of the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe is best remembered for The Fall of the House of Usher, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, and his acclaimed poem The Raven. The scope of his literary achievements and the dramatic character of Poe’s life - his struggle with drink and drugs, not to mention numerous romances - have drawn readers to him in droves. Hutchisson seeks here to reclaim the writer’s reputation, retracing Poe’s life and career, capturing the boisterous worlds of literary New York and Philadelphia in the 1800s, to understand why Poe wrote the way he did and why his achievement was so important to American literature. This biography presents a critical overview of Poe’s major works and his main themes, techniques, and imaginative preoccupations. This portrait of the writer emphasises Poe’s Southern identity; his existence as a workaday journalist; his authority as a literary critic; his advocacy of women writers; and his far-reaching posthumous influence.