| By Gale Staff |
Edgar Allan Poe is a central figure of American literature best known for his macabre poems and personal eccentricities. Poe was born on January 19, 1809, and literature lovers and horror buffs alike continue to celebrate the late author on his birthday each year. Folks in Baltimore gather at his gravesite, and many raise a glass in his honor—after all, Poe was known to overindulge on occasion. The circumstances and exact cause of his untimely death in 1849 remain somewhat mysterious, only adding to Poe’s mystique.
Edgar Allan Poe led a difficult, albeit short, life. He was orphaned at the age of three and raised by John Allan, a wealthy man uninterested in parenting Poe. Nonetheless, Edgar Allan Poe did well in school and attended the University of Virginia, though he was unable to finish his degree due to a gambling addiction and no financial support from his foster father. Throughout his life, Poe was a writer, and he eventually received literary recognition in his early 20s. Unfortunately, his life continued to spiral downward. In 1847, his first wife died of tuberculosis, and Poe himself died two years after. The exact cause of death is still unknown, though theories suggest rabies, a brain tumor, and alcoholism as possible causes.
This January, encourage readers and researchers to commemorate Edgar Allan Poe’s life and work. With Gale’s diverse literature and literary criticism collections, you can connect students and faculty to reliable content on the beloved poet and author. Whether you’re searching for “a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore” or a peer-reviewed criticism of a specific piece, Gale’s user-friendly search tools can help fine-tune your queries to find meaningful, targeted results.
Find Research Topics, News Articles, & More
Gale Literature Resource Center is the perfect place for anyone, novice or expert, engaged in teaching or studying literature. This comprehensive literary resource features the Gale research shortcuts you know and love, from our thematic Topic Finder to our integrated workflow tools. Discover thousands of Edgar Allan Poe-related criticisms, biographical resources, overviews, news articles, primary sources, photographs, and even podcasts.
Your academic researchers can explore high-quality, curated content in a user-friendly environment. Gale Literature Resource Center can also connect them to topic pages and examples to construct their own literary analyses. “Nevermore” will they trudge through the paid ads and potential misinformation of traditional search engines—Gale Literature Resource Center houses everything they need for high-quality Edgar Allan Poe research in one resource.
Dive into Criticism of Edgar Allan Poe’s Works
Academics will immediately appreciate the diverse viewpoints and genres housed in Gale Literature Criticism. You can deep-dive into 200 years of Edgar Allan Poe criticisms, commentaries, and opinion essays. Begin with a helpful overview, which promptly provides researchers with Poe’s biographical information, a short review of his most famous pieces, and a useful summary regarding general critiques of his work.
Gale Literature Criticism provides a curated collection of over 800 Poe-related resources. Explore essays regarding Poe’s literary influence on the American detective fiction genre. Or, consider the argument that Poe may have plagiarized one of his most famous stories. Gale Literature Criticism helps university students and faculty research more efficiently and approach subjects through a new lens.
Connect Readers to Poetry & Short Stories
If you’re hoping to access Poe’s original works in one database, look no further than Gale Literature: LitFinder. Select works, including better-known stories like The Fall of the House of Usher and arguably underrated pieces like Berenice, are available for download in dozens of different languages or word-to-text audio files. The latest accessibility features in LitFinder help you easily bring Poe’s prestigious works to more readers.
Need more resources to enrich literary research on your campus? Reach out to your Gale rep today.