- Every year on the date of his birthday, a mystery man leaves a bottle of cognac and roses on Poe's grave in Baltimore, MD.
- Considered by many to have invented the American horror story, science fiction, and the detective story. His creation Auguste Dupain in the 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is widely considered the first detective fiction story (Dupain reappeared in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter", published in 1842 and 1844 respectively), anticipating in 46 years to "A Study in Scarlet", the 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle's novel that introduced Sherlock Holmes. However, the fame of Holmes eventually eclipsed Dupain.
- There is some mystery surrounding the actual conditions of his death. In October 1849 he was found lying in a gutter, drunk, barely conscious and wearing someone else's clothing. He died shortly thereafter of apparent alcohol poisoning. However, some historians believe that there may have been other reasons for his untimely demise. The most common theory is that he was a victim of a political kidnapping and made to vote in a local mayoral election while dressed up in different clothes and under the influence of massive amounts of alcohol, so that he would not remember anything. Others believe that he may have had a massive brain tumor that led to a stroke; this theory is aided somewhat by the fact that Poe had a rather large, oddly-shaped head.
- Many scholars believe that he suffered from clinical depression.
- Didn't earn a cent from his most famous poem, "The Raven", having published it first in a newspaper for free and losing any and all future copyright monies. The original title of "The Raven" was "To Lenore", but upon having dinner with Charles Dickens and learning of the great writer's recently deceased pet bird, which just happened to be a raven, Poe reworked the poem to include the black bird as a central figure. He wrote "The Raven" with the intent of creating what he called an "adult fairy tale", and when asked why he didn't start the poem with the traditional "Once upon a time" but used "Once upon a midnight dreary" he replied, "In my 'time' it's always 'midnight dreary.'" All of Poe's stories took place at night, or if a day scene was required, it was the bleakest, foulest day of the year.
- In the September 1996 edition of the "Maryland Medical Journal," Dr. R. Michael Benitez (who ran the coronary care unit at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and taught at the University of Maryland Medical Center) published his conclusion that Poe died of rabies contracted via an animal bite, probably from a pet cat. Poe's symptoms and death indicate he suffered from rabies, a viral encephalitis that attacks the brain and central nervous system. Rabies, which is transmitted from the saliva of an infected animal to the open wound of a new host, is characterized by hydrophobia (fear of water), wide fluctuations in pulse, perspiration, delirium, intense fever, confusion and coma. A patient typically seems to recover, then suffers a relapse. The clinical course of rabies is four days, after which the patient dies without treatment. These were Poe's symptoms, and his case lasted four days before he died. According to Benitez, only twice in recorded history has anyone survived rabies, and "they weren't quite the same people they were before", as rabies causes irrevocable brain damage. Poe kept cats, and although there is no record of his ever having been bitten, Benitez noted that only 27% of recent rabies victims ever remembered the bite. The incubation period can last up to a year. In Poe's time there was no treatment for rabies, which was invariably fatal. For Poe it was almost a case of life (and death) imitating art, an end as inevitable and as gruesome as the sufferings of his tortured characters.
- Desperately wanted to become a Freemason, but they refused to consider him for membership.
- Poe met Charles Dickens during the Englishman's 1842 tour of America. On March 6, 1842, Poe and Dickens arranged to meet while he was in Philadelphia. Dickens had been greatly impressed by Poe's ability to guess the ending of his 1841 serialized novel "Barnaby Rudge". In the "Saturday Evening Post" edition of May 1841, Poe had reviewed the work, which was being published serially in a magazine a chapter at a time. At the meeting, Dickens agreed to consider writing for the magazine that Poe edited, "Graham's", and to try to find an English publisher for Poe's "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque". Nothing of substance came from either promise. Curiously, Dickens owned a pet raven named Grip, and he had introduced the loquacious raven into "Barnaby Rudge" as a character. In his May 1841 review, Poe commented on the use of the talking raven, saying the bird should have loomed larger in the plot. Literary experts surmise that the talking raven of "Barnaby Rudge" inspired Poe's most famous poem, "The Raven", published in 1845. After Grip died in 1841, Dickens had the bird mounted. It now resides at the Free Library on Logan Circle in Philadelphia, PA.
- When he was 2-1/2 years old he became (for all intents and purposes) orphaned, as his father had abandoned him and his mother died of tuberculosis. He was then taken in by John Allan and his wife Frances Keeling (nee Valentine and who inspired his later poem "My Valentine"). As he had lost his mother Elizabeth to tuberculosis in 1811, so he lost his new "mother", Frances, to chronic illness in 1829. As his father David had abandoned his family, so his new "father' John Allan abandoned his family at regular intervals to go on infidelity "sprees", and Poe became estranged from him when he tried to hold him to account for his bouts of adultery. John also left Edgar out of his will (along with two other children he fathered out of wedlock) and remarried after Frances died. His new wife, Louisa Gabriella Patterson, became a thorn in Edgar's side and contributed to the increasing impossibility of any reconciliation of Edgar and John, who (like Edgar's biological father) died of alcoholism. During the last time that Edgar ever saw John, she didn't try to stop her husband from threatening Edgar, or even try to make peace between the two.
- The NFL franchise Baltimore Ravens took its name from his famous poem, "The Raven". He, of course, was from Baltimore.
- Pictured on a 3¢ US postage stamp in the Famous Americans/Poets series, issued 7 October 1949.
- Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
- The Edgar Awards for mystery literature was named in honor of his writing.
- Was expelled from West Point for "gross neglect of duty".
- Born Edgar Poe, he was raised in Richmond, VA, by the Allan family.
- In his last months he was a member of the Sons of Temperance, a society founded in 1842 to campaign against alcohol consumption, which included to pledge Temperance oath: "I am now fully determined to renounce this destructive beverage, from this day, to the day of my death. Yes, I do renounce it, fully, totally".
- At one stage early on in life, Edgar Allan Poe had an addiction to gambling. After a while, his debts amounted to approximately $400 in those days.
- Has two siblings; brother William and sister Rosalie. His parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, were touring actors.
- Studied in England from 1815-20.
- Virginia Clemm (b.1822) was his cousin/niece.
- Was a sergeant major at West Point.
- In a strange turn of events, his first post-mortem biography was written and told by his greatest literary enemy, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, who often invented details of Poe's life in order to libel him (as, for example, his supposed alcoholism--Poe had congenital intolerance to it and he was unable to drink alcohol), caused among other reasons by their rivalry for the love of writer Frances Sargent Osgood. It turned into one of the most important cases of defamation in the entire 19th century.
- Upon being admitted to the asylum where he would soon die, it was reported that he was largely incoherent and unaware of his surroundings.
- The Raven (2012), starring John Cusack as Poe, is loosely inspired in his last days.
- His most famous stories were produced in a series of successful films by Hollywood during the 1960s, directed by Roger Corman. This series is composed by: House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964).
- In Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), the teenage Holmes and Watson were fans of Poe's writing.
- In the remake of "Ladykillers", the chief villain was a fan of Poe.
- Member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville (established in 1825 by 16 disgruntled members of the now-defunct Patrick Henry Society). Fellow members include US President Woodrow Wilson, US President James Madison (Honorary), Marquis De Lafayette (Honorary), William Faulkner (Honorary) and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Honorary).
- Had a cousin named Larkin Poe, who is the great-great-great-grandfather of musicians Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell. Their band 'Larkin Poe' was named after him.
- Like a lot of authors from his era, Edgar Allan Poe made little to no money from his writing. Quite often, he was on the breadline.
- In Spain as well as Latinoamerica his last name is often times mispronounced verbatim as "poe" (po-e), instead the real and phonetic "pou".
- Late descendant Edgar Allan Poe IV played his ancestor in Episode LXXXI: The Phantom Menace (1999), Monkeybone (2001) and Brooke Beckman: Haunted MD (2010).
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content