Edgar Allan Poe is the most morbid of all American authors. Poe has made his impact on Gothic fiction, especially the tales of the macabre for which he is so famous. “How can so strange and so beautiful a genius and so sad a life be expressed [sic] and summarized in line – would it not be better to say of Poe in reverential spirit simply Requiescat in Pace [?]” — (Alfred Lord Tennyson's response to Poe Memorial Committee, February 18, 1876). Poe's life story sheds light on the darkness of his writings. Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809 to David Poe and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, both of whom died before their son was three years old. Edgar went to live in Richmond, Virginia, with John Allan, a wealthy merchant, while his older brother William Henry and his half-sister Rosalie were sent to other families. When Poe was six years old, he went to school in England for five years. He studied mainly Latin and French, as well as mathematics and history. He later returned to school in America and continued his studies. Edgar was seventeen when he went to the University of Virginia in 1826...