Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of His Work and Writing Advice

Foster and Financial Trouble

Born on the 19th of January in 1809, Edgar Allan Poe is renowned for his works of literature and recognized as one of the most influential American authors in history. Poe’s biological parents both tragically died before he was three years old. He was taken in by his foster mother and father, Frances and John Allan, in Richmond, Virginia. Though Poe was never formally adopted, he shared in the status of the elite upper-class held by his foster family and attended various boarding schools throughout his youth.

At age 17, Poe was performing exceptionally well in his college courses. He had left behind his sweetheart Elmira Royster Shelton, who promised to remain his fiancée until his return. Unfortunately, he was unable to maintain tuition payments at the University of Virginia for long. In an attempt to acquire the money necessary, Poe gambled, and gathered a large amount of debt that his foster father, Allan, would not help him pay off. Poe was forced to return to live in Richmond after less than a year into his college education. Upon his return, he found Elmira engaged to another man. Another blow to his already troubled situation.

Becoming "Master of the Macabre"

While today Edgar Allan Poe is considered “Master of the Macabre” because of the way he revolutionized the genre of gothic horror, he was certainly not always the literary giant we have come to recognize him as. Because of high tension in his relationship with Allan, Poe moved to Boston and joined the United States Army in the year 1827. During this time, he published his first and second collections of poetry. After having a court-martial while in the military, Poe moved to live with his aunt and cousin, Maria Clemm and Virginia respectively, in their Baltimore home due to the financial issues he was facing yet again.

Although best known for his short stories, Poe was by choice a poet. Subsequent to his first two collections of poetry that he published during his time in the Army, Poe began his early career as a freelance short story writer, selling his works to various magazines. The first magazine to take special interest in Poe’s work was the Southern Literary Messenger based in Richmond. Through this magazine, Poe was able to publish his first horror story, “Metzengerstein,” and the disturbing “Berenice,” which had caused readers of the magazine to send in complaints!

METZENGERSTEIN: Poe's first horror story published for the Southern Literary Messenger is a tale of conflict between two families set in 16th-17th century Germany. Featuring a gloomy castle and the power of evil, the themes found in “Metzengerstein” are repeated throughout many of Poe’s other works. It is regarded as one story that refutes the criticisms that Poe has received for the hidden morals woven throughout his work. Poe never explicitly claims what supernatural forces are truly at work in the story here. Instead, the author trusts in the intellect and powers of discernment possessed by his readers. The topic of moral uncertainty is notably displayed through the actions of Frederick Metzengerstein. Morality and the supernatural are both central to the plot in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Metzengerstein.”

Success in Philadelphia

At age 27, Edgar Allan Poe and his cousin Virginia, who was 13, were married. Although there is debate on how and why their relationship came to be a marital one, Poe was seemingly of a better mentality when he was in the company of Virginia and Maria Clemm. The calming effect that his now wife and aunt seemed to have on him could possibly have contributed to a sudden uptick in his literary career. After accepting a position at the Southern Literary Messenger offered by the editor Thomas White, Edgar Allan Poe returned to Richmond Virginia and invited his wife and aunt to move with him. This job did not last long due to the strained relationship between Poe and White. Whether or not from faults of his own, namely his struggle with alcoholism, Poe left the magazine and Richmond altogether for Philadelphia in 1838. While living in Philadelphia, Edgar Allan Poe penned some of his most infamous literary works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” among many others.

THE TELL-TALE HEART: Another that is popularly read and is among the shortest of his stories, is Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” First published in 1843, Poe’s story of crime and madness continually evokes feelings of fear and disturbs readers. The tale begins with the narrator detailing what is pressing him to kill his roommate, an old man. The unreliable narrator attempts to persuade both himself and the reader that he is of a sound mind. However, the guilt of taking the man’s life has left the narrator’s conscience disrupted. As the story continues and the man hysterically confesses to a murder that he may have gotten away with, it is made plain to the reader that the narrator is mad. Poe’s use of irony is a large portion of what makes this story exceptional. The slow unraveling of the narrator’s psyche correspondingly unravels all the meticulous work he previously labored in to hide the body. Poe offers us a lesson through his use of the unreliable narrator. In this story of increasing insanity, the narrator becomes decreasingly dependable. Poe’s skillful technique demonstrates how the reader can no longer trust the narrator’s perspective, imitating the essence in which the narrator descends into madness.

Death in Life

Because so much of Poe's work was written in great quality, we often forget that he died at the young age of 40. This period of what most consider to be mid-life, is when many writers begin the period of their lives in which they now have experience that propels their writing career forward. To consider the literary accomplishments that Poe achieved during his lifetime was done at a time when other authors are just getting started, leaves to the imagination what more could have come from Poe's pen. The poem, “The Raven,” and the short story, “Morella,” are two of Poe’s works that center around the lasting effects of losing a partner, similar to Poe’s own personal loss of his wife Virginia. Within both works, the loved woman is the main reason for the sorrowful state of the narrator.

THE RAVEN: Widely considered his most famous poem, and even claimed by Poe himself to be generally known, “The Raven,” published in 1845, concerns a man and his encounter with a raven. The conflict within the poem stems from the real versus imagined, since it is unclear whether the raven is coherently responding, or simply reacting. In this regard, the raven stands as a mirror, echoing back to the narrator what he is already aware of, but has yet to accept; the fact that the narrator’s love, Lenore, is deceased and will not return to him. As the narrator asks, the bird only replies with one word, “Nevermore.” Throughout the text, the narrator confers with the raven, asking questions concerning the nature of his own distress after the death of his beloved Lenore. The dark and woeful tone of the poem leaves the reader also feeling enfeebled with the narrator’s loss.

MORELLA: First published in 1835, and later with a revised version in 1839, Morella is one of Poe’s short stories involving the narrator, his wife, and child. We begin the story by understanding the nature of the narrator’s and Morella’s relationship. Although it was not considered done of love, the narrator marries the well-read Morella and admires her intellectual nature. Morella’s work alluded to the idea that a person may live on after death. Later, Morella dies after giving birth, and the narrator attempts to continue Morella’s work of interpretating of a collection of German texts. Through this process, the narrator sees Morella within the daughter that she had created, becoming more and more concerned with the coincidence that this child is somehow Morella in a reincarnated form. In this purpose, the narrator slowly becomes obsessive and ultimately becomes haunted by what Morella had left behind. The repetition and supernatural throughout the piece lend to the overall recurring encounters that the narrator cannot control. Poe skillfully uses writing techniques to amplify the meaning held within his words.

A Distorted Image

Multitudes of other authors have attributed the source of their inspiration to the works and ideas from Edgar Allan Poe. Those who have only studied Edgar Allan Poe within the popular representation of the author have a distorted vision of him because it fits the version of the gothic horror writer that has been marketed to profitability for decades. With the majority of Poe’s stories being satires and comedies, we as writers can learn from the lesson of duality. Not only did Poe compose creations of both the ethereal and odd, he did it with such authority that it has permeated our literature today, influencing modern writers time and time again.

With his work “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” earning Edgar Allan Poe the title of inventor of the detective fiction genre, the fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin was popularized later as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Poe also sets the stage for the recurring character by including C. Auguste Dupin in three of his stories, which is a common aspect of detective fiction. Sherlock Holmes indicates many similarities to C. Auguste Dupin in the characters’ methods of investigative observation. Almost 45 years past the death of Poe, his work influenced one of the most prolific fictional detective characters to ever be written.

Within recent years, two novels that have become popular are Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, and T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead. Both authors credit drawing some of their inspiration for their gothic novels to Edgar Allan Poe. T. Kingfisher’s 2022 fictional novel, What Moves the Dead is an artful retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Locations and eerie castles always have their place within Poe’s work, and here in Kingfisher’s novel, the setting is absolutely central to the plot of the story. The author builds on Poe’s unsettling imagination, continuing on and elucidating the source of the unnatural occurrences in and around the Usher house. Mexican Gothic is both unnerving and lovely in the author's use of the location. The classic gothic genre aspect of a remote manor that holds many haunting secrets persists within Moreno-Garcia’s novel. Both authors create new stories that are based in the feature of an alluring location as established by Edgar Allan Poe.

Stephen King’s The Shining has been recognized to contain certain aspects affected by the tales of Poe. Author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment had drawn ideas via Poe’s work by declaring that a criminal does not necessarily need to have mental problems. Dostoevsky also wrote an introductory piece for a translated publication of three of Poe’s tales. He opines on Poe’s skills and compliments the vigor of his imagination. The science-fiction author Ray Bradbury provides readers with an in-depth essay on Poe. Within his text, Bradbury commends Poe’s use of the rural landscape and giving the gothic architecture personality. Bradbury goes on to explain how there exist resemblances between Poe’s life and his literary works. Among King, Dostoevsky and Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe’s work has and will continue to influence writers that were, and who are to come.

“Philosophy of Composition”

Those who are not aware of the rich inner life of Edgar Allan Poe often wrongfully hold onto the notion that Poe was a drunk madman who wrote his greatest works in a feverish rage. This could not be further from the truth. To understand the work of Edgar Allan Poe, it is important to try to understand his artistic process. Poe was diligent in his works, both in a creative and scholarly respect.

Poe’s essay, “The Philosophy of Composition,” presents the author’s thoughts and advice on great writing. One of the first concepts that Poe introduces to us is knowing your ending before writing the beginning. He compares this to the more traditional method of writing that begins with the exposition and continues through the climax, until ending with the denouement. Poe argues against this method of writing because it is possible to be distracted with unnecessary pieces within the story that do nothing for the overall meaning. Poe sagely wrote, "It is only with the denouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention." With the knowledge of the ending, and the view of it always in sight, Poe recognizes that authors will be well-suited to writing with one purpose in mind.

Poe continues on to detail and analyze his writing process of “The Raven.” He likens the process to that of a mathematical equation: with carefully planned steps that must be followed in order to reach the proper conclusion. The first rule mentioned is to have in mind the proper length of the work. Poe had in mind around 100 lines of poetry and “The Raven” is in fact 108. Secondly, Poe concerned himself with the overall impression he wanted to leave upon the reader. He elucidates the fact that beauty is not necessarily that which is pleasing to the eye—but rather that which elevates the soul. Having now the tools with which to begin creation, Poe gets into the finer elements of his masterful creation of “The Raven,” until the end of his personal philosophy.

“Lord, help my poor soul,”: These are the reported last words of Edgar Allan Poe. Fitting it is, as a master of the eerie, to have mysterious circumstances surrounding his own death on the 7th of October. Theories of murder, drunkenness, and rabies have all been discussed as possible causes of his death. The first obituary published of Poe’s death happened to be the work of his literary opponent, Rufus Griswold. Within this derogatory obituary, Griswold degraded Poe’s name and painted a picture of Poe as a financially decrepit drunk. This was perhaps the first public information that solidified Edgar Allan Poe’s name as a woeful madman of an author. As mysterious as the circumstances of his death may have been, Poe was in the process of raising funds and gaining subscribers for his magazine.

Despite his difficulties within his personal life, Edgar Allan Poe is nonetheless renowned for his works of literature today, precisely 215 years since his birth. Poe was a man who worked through his individual struggles to give the world the gift of his literary genius. Even after the considerable success he had already obtained, Poe was still eager to achieve more, and was in the act of working diligently toward his dreams until his last day.

Discussion Questions

The following questions are starting points to help you evaluate your writing style and apply the author's lessons to your own work. Feel free to comment below or answer the questions privately. Pick and choose what works for you.

1. Edgar Allan Poe's image is one that has been skewed over time to fit that of the mastermind of gothic horror. As an author, how might your marketing image influence the perception that your readers have of you?

2. While renowned as a master of the horror genre, Poe was also known to be extremely comedic in his interactions. Where might you find room for improvement regarding the balance in your own work/life situation?

3. Poe's life was filled with setbacks, yet he accomplished many great works of literature. What obstacles have you had to overcome and how does Edgar Allan Poe’s perseverance inspire you?