Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered a vital part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was among the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.

Poe was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, leading to a financially difficult life and career. Born in Boston, he was the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and following his mother's death in 1811, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia, though they never formally adopted him.

Poe attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to financial issues and disagreements with Allan. In 1827, he enlisted in the United States Army under the assumed name "Edgar A. Perry," and published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, credited only to "a Bostonian." Poe failed as an officer cadet at West Point and declared his intention to become a writer of poems.

Poe switched focus to prose, working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his style of literary criticism. His work took him to several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1836, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, who died of tuberculosis in 1847.

In January 1845, he published his famous poem The Raven. Poe planned to produce his own journal, The Penn, later renamed The Stylus, but died in Baltimore in 1849 at 40 under mysterious circumstances. His works have greatly influenced literature worldwide, impacting cosmology and cryptography. Several of his homes are now museums, and the Mystery Writers of America present an annual Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.