He was fond of themes of death, insanity, and terror.
The wonder of it all is that this struggling, poverty-stricken
craftsman, irregular in his habits of living, using only negative life
and shadowy abstractions, should, from out his disordered fancies,
weave stories and poems of such undying beauty and force.
Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. Her health
was always delicate and her death confirmed Poe's tendency toward
dissipation. His life was filled with dire poverty and a hard struggle
for a livelihood. His home relations were happy. The last years of his
life were spent at Fordham, a suburb of New York. He died in a
Baltimore hospital, October 7, 1849.
BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
_Introduction to American Literature_, Brander Matthews.
_Studies in American Literature_, Charles Noble.
_Introduction to American Literature_, F.V.N. Painter.
_Life of Poe_, Richard Henry Stoddard.
_Edgar Allan Poe_, G.E. Woodberry.
_Makers of English Fiction_, W.J. Dawson.
"Art of Poe, _Independent_, 66: 157-8. January 21, 1909.
"Dual Personality," _Current Literature_, 43: 287-8.
CRITICISMS
Some critics have maintained that Poe is our only original genius in
American Literature. Lowell wrote in his _Fable for Critics_:--
"There comes Poe with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three-fifths of
him genius, and two-fifths sheer fudge.
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