A&E: Biography - Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe

This edition of BIOGRAPHY, the long running documentary series from A&E, explores the life of author Edgar Allan Poe.

Poe served in the U.S. Army and then attended West Point, but got himself dismissed by not studying. He then went to Baltimore to live with his aunt. He would marry her daughter and his own cousin, 13-year-old Virginia Clemm, in 1836. Eventually, he gained a reputation for his short stories, poems, reviews, and essays. Stories such as THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER and MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE would later be regarded as classics of their genre.

He also gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a dozen stories as well as of THE RAVEN AND OTHER POEMS. After his wife died in 1847 his life began to unravel as he moved about from city to city, lecturing and writing and becoming increasingly erratic. He died in Baltimore after being found semi-conscious in a tavern possibly from encephalitic rabies. Admittedly a failure in most areas of his personal life, he was recognized as an unusually gifted writer he remains one of the most timeless and extraordinary of all American creative artists whose reputation in American literature remains secure.