Famous Authors: Edgar Allen Poe 1996

Overview

Poe rose from the depths of despair at age 22, disinherited and destitute, to become one of the greatest figures in American literature. At that age he had three dozen poems published and went on to do about forty more. But short stories would prove to be the genre for which his contributions were most significant. "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are two of his most enduring works. Poe virtually invented detective stories and the notion of focusing on the process of solving