"For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect...yet mad am I not and very surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die, and today I would unburden my soul."
             Thus the narrator begins to confess to murdering his wife in "The Black Cat" just one of the many fascinating creations from short story master and poet, Edgar Allan Poe.
             Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest writers of all time. His work has inspired many writers across the world. His many short stories and poems of horror and mystery are sure to give you a chill up your spine whenever they are read.
             Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th 1809 in Boston Massachusetts to parents David Poe Jr and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. His parents were both itinerant actors. Unfortunately Poe never really got to know his parents for they died before he was the age of three. Poe was separated from both his sister Rosalie and his older brother William, for when their parents had died Rosalie was taken in by a Richmond family called the Mackenzie's and William was sent to live with one of his fathers relatives who couldn't take Edgar as well for they could not afford another child. Poe was taken into the home of a Richmond merchant by the name of John Allan who lived in Virginia. John Allan was a member of the firm of Ellis and Allan, tobacco-merchants and they were well off. John Allan and his wife Frances (Fanny) Allan were frequent theatregoers and Fanny joined the charitable woman of Richmond who helped Elizabeth Poe's sickroom. Fanny was interested in the middle son Edgar and after consulting David Poe Jr's relatives they took in Edgar but never formally adopted him. John baptized Poe and Poe took his name as his middle name (Allan).
             At the age of 5 Edgar could recite passages of English literature. One of his teachers in Richmond said, ...