Edgar Allan Poe

# Edgar Allan Poe Orphaned young, expelled from West Point, plagued by poverty and alcohol, Edgar Allan Poe nonetheless invented the modern detective story, established the short horror tale as a serious literary form, and wrote poetry of such musical precision that it lodges permanently in memory after a single reading. The Raven. The Tell-Tale Heart. The Fall of the House of Usher. He died at forty in Baltimore under circumstances still debated. He was found delirious in someone else's clothes. The cause was never determined. It suited him.