Edgar Allan Poe has to be the most mysterious of authors that the world has ever seen. He has been the subject of more biographies, analyses, and studies than any other American author, yet now; more than 150 years after his death, much of the details of his tumultuous life are still unknown. Much of this mystery is because of the many myths and legends that surround Poe's life, most of which were created by Poe himself. He frequently lied about his age and his origins. He used pseudonyms and created fanciful stories about his experiences in order to cover up what he thought were shameful acts.
             Although Poe's short and tragic life is fascinating in and of itself, his writings are what truly characterize him as such an amazing person. In his life Edgar Allan Poe worked in so many different fields of literature. Poetry was his first and true passion. He is America's first major poet. Poe wrote many of his poems while he was young. Almost all of them were done before he was twenty-two years of age. When he reached his twenty-third year, Poe turned away from poetry and began to work at various magazines as editor. Poe did not just edit but was also a journalist and a critic. He also began to write the short stories for which he is so well known, stories that explore the depths of the human mind and show us how we all contain an evil, dark side, a part of us that can show itself at any moment.
             Poe himself had such a dark side. He frequently drank heavily. Alcohol was not good for Poe. One drink of wine or whiskey made him senseless and disoriented. He suffered greatly from his alcoholism and it eventually ended his life.
             Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His parents, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe, were wandering actors. His father left
             before young Edgar was a year old, leaving Elizabeth to care for three children by herself. She tried to take care of them but fell...