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.
