Jugami Poe

High School English · Short Stories & Gothic Literature

Edgar Allan Poe

Murder, madness, and a heartbeat under the floor. Meet the writer who turned fear into some of the best short stories in English.

Edgar Allan Poe lived only forty years, but he changed what a short story could do. He wrote tales of terror that still frighten readers, invented the modern detective story, and wrote “The Raven,” one of the most famous poems in America. In this course you’ll read his stories in full, with notes, and learn how he makes a few pages feel unbearably tense.

Your teacher: Edgar, Jugami’s guide to Short Stories & Gothic Literature.

Start with The Tell-Tale HeartMeet Poe
A writer’s desk at midnight with a candle, quill, and a raven A single candle lights a wooden desk at night. On the desk are a stack of papers, an inkwell with a quill pen, and an open manuscript. On a shelf above stands a pale stone bust of Pallas Athena wearing a helmet, and a black raven perches on top of it, its eye catching the candlelight.
Original art made for Jugami.

On This Page

  1. His life
  2. What makes it Gothic?
  3. Stories
  4. Sources

His Life

Born
January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts
Died
October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland, aged 40
Known for
Gothic tales, detective stories, poetry and sharp-tongued literary criticism

Poe’s parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, were traveling actors. He lost them both before he turned three: his mother died in Richmond, Virginia, in December 1811, and his father seems to have died around the same time. Edgar was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond. That’s where the “Allan” in his name comes from, though the Allans never legally adopted him.

His life was full of money trouble and loss. He spent his career as a magazine editor and writer, moving between Richmond, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York, and was often poor even when his work was famous.

  1. 1826 Enters the University of Virginia in February. By the end of the year he is back in Richmond, with gambling debts of about $2,000 that John Allan refuses to pay.
  2. 1827 Joins the U.S. Army under the name “Edgar A. Perry.” The same year his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, comes out, signed only “A Bostonian.”
  3. 1830–31 Enters the military academy at West Point, then is court-martialed and dismissed.
  4. 1836 Marries his young cousin Virginia.
  5. 1841 “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” appears in Graham’s Magazine. It is often called the first modern detective story.
  6. 1843 “The Tell-Tale Heart” appears in The Pioneer, a Boston magazine.
  7. 1845 “The Raven” is printed in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29 and makes him famous almost overnight.
  8. 1847 Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their cottage in Fordham, New York.
  9. 1849 Poe dies in Baltimore on October 7. Two days later a hostile obituary by the editor Rufus Griswold starts rumors about Poe’s character that lasted for generations.

Myth check: much of what people “know” about Poe as a gloomy madman comes from Griswold’s unfair obituary and memoir. Poe was a hard-working professional writer and editor who thought carefully about how stories work.

What Makes It Gothic?

Gothic fiction is literature built on mystery, terror and dread. It started in England with Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto (1765) and was at its most popular in the 1790s. Early Gothic novels were set in gloomy castles and monasteries, full of secret passages and supernatural hints. Later came Frankenstein (1818) and Dracula (1897).

Poe brought Gothic ideas into American writing and into the short story. He often swapped the haunted castle for something more frightening: the inside of a person’s mind.

Stories

Sources

Colophon: the candlelit desk and raven illustration and the favicon are original SVG art made for Jugami. The share image is made from that original SVG art.