Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem "The Raven,"
beginning "Once upon a midnight dreary," is published on January 29, 1845
in the New York Evening Mirror. Poe's dark and macabre work reflected
his own tumultuous and difficult life. Born in Boston in 1809, Poe was orphaned
at age three and went to live with the family of a Richmond, Virginia,
businessman. Poe enrolled in a military academy but was expelled for gambling.
He later studied briefly at the University of Virginia. In 1827, he self-published
a collection of poems. Six years later, his short story "MS Found in a
Bottle" won $50 in a story contest. He edited a series of literary
journals, including the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond starting
in 1835, and Burton's Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia, starting in
1839. Poe's excessive drinking got him fired from several positions. His
macabre work, often portraying motiveless crimes and intolerable guilt that
induces growing mania in his characters, was a significant influence on such
European writers as Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarme, and even
Dostoyevsky.
Michael Thomas
Barry’s book Great Britain’s Literary Legends: The Lives & Burial Places of 50
Great Writers can be pre-ordered from Amazon through the following
links:
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3
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