United States

Edgar Allan Poe

1809–1849

Born in Boston in 1809, orphaned young and raised in Richmond by John and Frances Allan, Poe lived by writing, editing and criticism, in poverty and grief; his wife Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847, and he died in Baltimore two years later. In The Raven, Annabel Lee and The Tell-Tale Heart he turned obsession, mourning and the fear of one’s own mind into hypnotic, musical form. He helped found both psychological horror and the detective story.