No other author of the nineteenth century is as omnipresent in today’s culture as Edgar Allan Poe.

The influence of Edgar Allan Poe on our culture is immeasurable. Poe, the founder of detective stories, contributed to the development of the horror genre and science fiction. Real darkness lingers around the legendary figure. So, let us now dive into the twisted history of Edgar Allan Poe, to find out some haunting facts about him.

There is a good chance that the author was named after the character from Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. The life story of Edgar Allan Poe was undeniably a tragedy, he was orphaned just a year after his birth. Poe shared a strange relationship with his foster father John Allan, from whom he acquired his middle name. He was brutal and swift with his discipline and the existence of this mercurial relationship was uncertainly very strained.

The author grew up in a cavernous mansion, where he first met Sarah Elmira Royster, the love of his life. However, the relationship was doomed from the beginning, as Sarah’s father did not approve of it. Poe came across gambling, his newfound love when he was attending the University of Virginia. John Allan started running out of patience as Poe became more of a hot mess, and after a year of gambling and drinking, he dropped out of college. The lack of financial support from Allan compelled Poe to embark upon a miserable journey of debt and perennial poverty. At the age of 18, he published his first book ‘Tamerlane’ and the publication of ‘The Raven’ in 1845 finally helped him secure the success he had been seeking.

His wife died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, after which the author devoted his time to publish a version of the “Big Bang” theory entitled ‘Eureka’. In 1849 he reunited with his childhood love Sarah and got engaged a few weeks before his death. Poe went missing in the same year and was found 5 days later in a delirious condition. He was immediately hospitalized but died at the age of 40.

The cause of his death is still a mystery as no autopsy was performed. Rufus Wilmot Griswold, a professional and personal rival of Poe had composed a lengthy obituary after the author’s death and it was so vilifying that Griswold signed it with a pseudonym.  Only seven people had attended Poe’s funeral and he was buried in an unmarked grave.  26 years after Poe’s death, teachers and students raised money to offer proper burial to the author, but the coffin broke while moving him to the new location. Pieces of the coffin are now collector’s items

Could there be a more befitting legacy?