Edgar Allan Poe defined the genre of gothic horror with his tales of madness and mystery. While most people picture him as a brooding, frail poet, the real man possessed a surprising athletic ability and a sharp, mathematical mind. In fact, he invented the modern detective story long before Sherlock Holmes ever appeared in print. Furthermore, his tragic death remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in literary history. Prepare to look beneath the floorboards with the author of The Raven.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe enlisted in the army under a fake name. To escape his gambling debts and a strained relationship with his foster father, he joined the US Army as “Edgar A. Perry.” Specifically, he claimed he was twenty-two years old, even though he was actually only eighteen at the time.
Shockingly, he married his first cousin when she was only thirteen. He wed Virginia Clemm in a secret ceremony in 1836. On the marriage certificate, a witness falsely attested that she was twenty-one years old to avoid legal scrutiny.
Surprisingly, his best-selling book during his lifetime was a textbook about seashells. While he struggled to sell his poetry, The Conchologist’s First Book became a commercial success. He wrote this scientific guide to mollusks primarily for money, and, consequently, it sold out within two months.
Notably, he single-handedly invented the modern detective story. His character C. Auguste Dupin, who appeared in The Murders in the Rue Morgue, established the archetype of the brilliant, eccentric detective. In fact, Arthur Conan Doyle later admitted that Sherlock Holmes owed his existence to Poe’s creation.
Additionally, he proposed a theory similar to the Big Bang eighty years before science caught up. In his prose poem Eureka, he suggested that the universe began from a single “primordial particle” and expanded outward. Although critics dismissed it as nonsense at the time, modern astronomers now recognize his intuitive leap.
Unfortunately, a bitter rival ruined his reputation after his death. Rufus Griswold wrote a defamatory obituary and biography that painted Poe as a depraved, drug-addicted madman. Griswold forged letters and invented stories solely to destroy the legacy of the man he hated.
Most likely, he died as a victim of voter fraud called “cooping.” Gangs in Baltimore often kidnapped people, drugged them, and forced them to vote multiple times for a specific candidate. This explains why passersby found him delirious outside a polling place wearing clothes that did not fit him.
Contrary to his image as a weakling, he was an incredibly strong swimmer. He once swam six miles up the James River against a strong current. A famous local athlete tried to keep up with him but failed, thus cementing Poe’s reputation for physical endurance.
Tragically, he received only nine dollars for The Raven. Although the poem made him an overnight celebrity, it failed to bring him financial stability. He published it in The American Review in 1845 and earned a flat fee that barely covered his rent.
Furthermore, he invited readers to send him secret codes to solve. He challenged the public to submit ciphers to Alexander’s Weekly Messenger, boasting that he could solve any of them. Remarkably, he successfully cracked nearly every code people sent him, proving his skill at cryptography.
Deliberately, he got himself expelled from West Point. After his foster father refused to sign his resignation papers, Poe decided to get court-martialed. As a result, he skipped classes and refused to attend church until the academy finally dismissed him.
Interestingly, he fooled New York with a fake news story about a balloon. He published an article in The Sun claiming that a hot air balloon had successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean in three days. Crowds gathered outside the newspaper office to read the report before they realized it was total fiction.
Also, he wrote a serious essay on interior design. In The Philosophy of Furniture, he criticized the gaudy decorating tastes of wealthy Americans. He argued that a well-furnished room required specific colors, carpets, and lighting to create a mood of artistic perfection.
His biological parents were both traveling actors. Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe Jr. performed in theaters across the East Coast. However, his father abandoned the family and his mother died of tuberculosis when Poe was only two, leaving him an orphan.
Finally, a mysterious figure visited his grave for decades. For over sixty years, a person known as the “Poe Toaster” left three roses and a bottle of cognac on his grave every January 19th. The identity of this tribute-payer remains unknown, and the visits stopped abruptly in 2009.
