You don’t know Poe

1. You don’t know Poe A Brief Overview of the Master of American Horror

2. Early LIfe • Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Mass., in 1809, while his parents, who were traveling actors, were on tour. • In 1826, he attended the University of Virginia. • He was bad with money his entire life. He was ashamed of this. • He gambled to raise money, and ended up burning his furniture for firewood while at school.

3. Edgar Allan Poe Daguerrotype of Poe, by Edwin H. Manchester, 1848.

4. EARLY TRAGEDIES • Poe discovered his fiancée in Richmond, Virginia, had become engaged to another. • He also learned that his beloved adopted mother, Frances Allan, was dying of tuberculosis. She summoned him home, but passed away before he had the chance to see her. • Poe enrolled at West Point to become a soldier and pursue a life of adventure. He was thrown out after 8 months. • He had already published a book of poetry by age 18.

5. MORE WEIRDNESS • Poe’s adoptive father died and left him out of his will, leaving his inheritance to an as-yet-unknown illegitimate child instead. • Poe had moved from Baltimore to Richmond and began publishing short stories and working at the Southern Literary Messenger. • He was known for his brilliant but totally scathing book reviews—usually pitted against the “Northern” literary establishment. • He married his young cousin Virginia Clemm, when she was thirteen years old.

6. Virginia clemm Portrait of Virginia Clemm by either William Morrison Hughes or George Caleb Bingham.

7. SUCCESS & SADNESS • Poe continued to work as a respected editor and writer (of fiction and essays) for years. • In 1842, Virginia contracted tuberculosis. • Poe published the poem “The Raven” in 1845 and became a household name. • They decided to leave New York amongst rumors that Poe was involved with a married woman. • Virginia died in the winter of 1847, at the age of 24. Poe was depressed for months.

8. dying • Poe did not outlast his wife for long. • Within two years of her death, Poe decided to travel to Virginia to woo his former fiancée. • On this trip, he disappeared for five days. • He was discovered in a bar in Baltimore by a magazine editor friend and was checked into the hospital. • He died after five days, on October 7, 1849. He was 40 years old.

9. Poe’s Fiction • Though he is most popular for his poetry, Poe’s fiction was completely revolutionary. • Largely inspired by European masters (just like his contemporary, Hawthorne), Poe introduced Gothic motifs into American literature. • Gothic fiction originated in Europe with the publication of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. • It is an extension of Romanticism, a literary movement that emphasized imagination, emotions, natural imagery, and a reflective sense of melancholy.

10. WHAT is “gothic”? Duomo, Milan, Italy, first built in 1386.

11. WHAT IS “GOTHIC”?

12. HOW IS POE “GOTHIC”? • Poe writes a lot about horror, suspense, with high-intensity and often unreliable narration, death, grotesquerie, and mayhem. • What is “the grotesque”? • While we read “The Fall of the House of Usher” and other Poe works, think about how these features describe his writing. • “In the realm of the short story, Poe was a prophet, peering into the next age, rather than a leader of his own time.” —The Cambridge History of American Literature

13. Works Cited • “Daguerrotype of Edgar Allan Poe.” Wikipedia. 22 Jun 2014. • “Gothic Fiction.” Wikipedia. 22 Jun 2014. • “Poe’s Life.” Poe Museum. Poemuseum.org. 22 Jun 2014. • “Romanticism.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster.com. 22 Jun 2014. • Throgmorton, Cathy. “Bingham’s Best Student on Display at Central Methodist University.” The Columbia Daily Tribune. 11 Jun 2013.