(To read the interviews with writers,you can find them in the "Authors" button. You can also enjoy a radio while reading.)
Did you know? Edgar Allan Poe
His birth name was Edgar Poe, but when he was three, his parents died, and he was adopted by Virginia businessman John Allan, who renamed the kid Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe was an accomplished boxer, long jumper, rower, and swimmer. He held a local record for swimming seven miles against the current up the James River in Richmond, Virginia.
For decades, he worked as a freelancer. He edited poetry anthologies, worked as a literary critic, wrote a textbook, and published works of scientific theory.
He Published His First Book At the age of 18 years old.
In 1849, he disappeared for five days. When Edgar was found by a friend, he was in a confused and incoherent state, desperate for medical attention. Four days later, he died, having never regained lucidity and after calling out the name “Reynolds” multiple times hours before he died.
Poe joined the United States Army as a private in 1827. He enlisted in the First Regiment of Artillery and moved up the ranks to Sergeant Major for Artillery, having impressed his superiors in only two years.
Edgar Was The First American Professional Writer.
He Married His 13-Year-Old Cousin, While it was common for first cousins to marry, it was less common for them to have a 14-year age gap because Poe was 27 when they married.
In the winter of 1847, Poe's wife, Virginia, died of tuberculosis. She was 24. He never recovered from her death; many of Poe's stories and poems about dying and dead women were written during the period of Virginia's illness.
Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 story The Murders in the Rue Morgue is known as the first detective fiction story.
