A short overview of Poe's life. Not ground breaking, but adequate. ( )

Good but short biography of Poe, an excellent pre-Halloween read. ( )

This is a good short biography summarising the life and work of this tortured genius, effective founder of the modern detective genre and populariser of the horror genre. I have read most of his most famous short stories (Masque of the Red Death, Pit and the Pendulum, Fall of the House of Usher, Cask of Amontillado, Tell-Tale Heart, Murders in the Rue Morgue, the Purloined Letter) a couple of his most famous poems (The Raven and Annabelle Lee), and his only full length novel (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket), but knew only the basic facts about his life. His parents died when he was a small child, and he, his brother and sister were brought up in different families. Poe's "adoptive" father, Mr Allan, never formally adopted him, leaving his legal status as that of an orphan, and refused to support him as he was growing up. Poe's short life was blighted by alcoholism and poverty, despite achieving some literary success in magazines, but which paid a pittance. His home life as an adult was somewhat more stable, and his marriage to his cousin Virginia (whom me married when she was just 13 and he twice her age), and support by his aunt Maria Clemm gave him some periods of happiness. He clearly had a streak of self-destructiveness working against his creativity and his early death at the age of 40 deprived him of the possibility of a longer period of stable creativity in a second marriage to his childhood sweetheart, his wife Virginia having tragically died of consumption at the age of 24. The book finishes with some useful notes and handy recommendations for future reading. ( )

A bio of Poe written by one of my favorite non-fiction authors!
Everyone knows the highlights of Poe's life- the alcoholism, the poverty, the marriage to his thirteen year-old cousin and the brilliance that was somehow mostly overlooked in his lifetime. He seems like a man who couldn't catch a fair break. But Collins goes through Poe's life with a fine toothed comb, finding obscure works published in magazines, friends who helped Poe in every way they could, and the many many ways in which he was his own worst enemy. A more complete image of the man appears than I'd ever expected, and what seems clear is that Poe was something of a jerk. Though his relationship with his Virginia and aunt was always loving, he habitually spent money desperately needed for food to get himself drunk, and used his position as editor or columnist in various magazines to insult other writers and poets, even his own friends, leading James Lowell, one of Poe's most ardent supporters, to remark, "I have made Poe my enemy by doing him a service."
I was also surprised to learn that many of his works were met with great success in his lifetime, though he never made much money from them due to the low paying magazines that published them and the proliferation of pirated copies.
This is a slim book, just 107 pages, but it's packed with information. ( )

This is a well written brief biography of the legendary poet and author. We are taken through this literary genius's life in all its painful reality and turmoil. It is hard to imagine a more anguished career as his but there surely are many among the unrecognized. In looking at his path it is also hard to imagine a better outcome even had he gotten the rewards and acknowledgement he seemed to pursue. In the arts it seems as much the norm as their fame expands with the passage of their departing. ( )