Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe is perhaps best known as a writer of books and short stories rather than the writer of romantic love letters. Indeed most people only know him for his mystery and rather macabre stories many of them having been turned into short horror films for late night television showing. However he was also actively involved as a leader in the new waves of crime and detective story books. Indeed his first published works were two volumes of poems general in nature but including some very romantic love poems although Edgar Allen Poe was later writing some of the very first science fiction stories. Born as Edgar Poe after both his parents died he was raised by family friends John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia from a very early age. Although the Allen family never formally adopted Edgar Poe they did baptise him as Edgar Allen Poe. A name he was to keep and become known by world-wide. The Allens did look after him but also treated him badly at other times and he left Richmond Virginia to live in Baltimore after a series of disagreements with John Allen. Despite that history of bad blood he did return to Richmond to become Assistant Editor of a local literary magazine turning it around increasing subscriptions by developing his own style of writing. Shortly after returning to Richmond he married his 13 year cousin although the marriage certificate said she was 21. After her early death he joined the army serving in a very dangerous role preparing explosives for the artillery (when explosives were less stable than they are today). Attaining the highest rank possible for a non-commissioned officer he had to fight for his discharge so he could later apply for a place at West Point the army officer training academy. However Edgar Allen Poe later deliberately got himself court-marshalled from the army to take up writing and magazine publishing full time. Following a number of failure in love affairs and engagements being cancelled he was to develop a reputation as a writer of stories about beautiful women who have just died. These romantic love letters published in our Edgar Allen Poe category are to women he never flirted with seriously but nothing was to become of them. He died of unknown causes a couple of days after having been found unconscious on the street.