Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

For my research paper I plan to talk about Edgar Allan Poe. I chose him because I really appreciate his work. He is dubbed the father of detective fiction. Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator (often a detective), either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder; these stories always have a lot of drama and constant changes that leave the reader always being surprised. In my opinion, this is one of the most entertaining and suspenseful forms of story writing that is even still used to this day. Such stories like Sherlock Holmes may never have come into the literary world without him. Edgar Allan Poe was an author, literary critic, and poet. He lived an eventful life, had a noble career, and left a legacy that influences literature to this day.

In the beginning I plan to talk about his life and important career; I also plan to get detailed on parts of his personal life so one can understand the mind that formulates all these creative writings. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family leaving him an orphan. He was not an orphan for long thanks to John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They were wealthy tobacco merchants and strived to make him a successful businessman though they never lawfully adopted him. He was the second of three children and interestingly enough his brother was also a writer but suffered and early death. He made an attempt at obtaining an education from the University of Virginia but was not able due to a lack of finances. He returned to his fiancée only to find out she has married another man while he was gone. He later enlisted in the Army and faced failure at being an officer’s cadet at West Point. I feel that in the midst of all this, Edgar finally discovered he was different. He separated from the Allans and began an anonymous poem collection...