It was on this date, January 19, 1809, that American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe was born Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of itinerant actors who died within two years. Edgar was reared in Richmond, Virginia, by merchant John Allan, from whom Poe took his middle name. Poe showed great poetic skill from a young age. His first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque — which included “The Fall of the House of Usher” — appeared in 1840...

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Originally published January 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.