Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe) was born in Boston Massachusetts on January 19th 1809 and was orphaned at an early age. Taken in by the Allan family his education was cut short by lack of money and he went to the military academy West Point where he failed to become an officer. His early literary works were poetic but he quickly turned to prose. He worked for several magazines and journals until in January 1845 `The Raven' was published and became an instant classic. Thereafter followed the works for which he is now so rightly famed as a master of the mysterious and macabre. Edgar Allan Poe died at the early age of 40 in 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland