210 years after his death, the writer continues to be a literary reference in the genre of terror and the short story.
If we told you that there is an author who has influenced the most relevant writers of the last century and a half, who also has the merit of having resurrected the short story, of having created the first literary detective and contributed to the flowering of science fiction, probably Do not believe us. If we also tell you what it is one of the great masters and main renovators of the horror genre, the thing has just taken that uncertain and mysterious aspect that some of Poe's stories have.
Effectively, Edgar Allan Poe It was that and much more. He arrived in the world on January 19 two hundred and ten years ago to record his name in history. From PlanetadeLibros we propose a brief review of his life and work to celebrate his anniversary and his legacy.
The illness and the early death of his wife inspired his stories
Born into a couple of traveling actors, Edgar Poe lost his parents with just over two years. He was welcomed by the Allan family, who was responsible for raising him and paying for his education. He began his studies in the United Kingdom and continued them in the United States, where he was expelled from the university for his love of drinking and gaming.
Wrote Tamerlane, his first volume of poetry, at eighteen, and after being expelled again, this time from the military academy, he married his young cousin and ended up leading the newspaper with remarkable success Southern Literary Messenger, where he published some of his stories.
The illness and the early death of his wife inspired his stories and aggravated his abuse of alcohol and other substances, which would end his life soon after.
Solid defender of poetry as a literary expression, his, although well received by works such as The Raven, Leonora or Annabel Lee, was not the one that gave him greater fame. On the contrary, their stories Gothic, dark and elegant, they catapulted him to the position he occupies today in the world of letters.
The barrel of the amontillado, The fall of the house Usher or The truth about Mr. Valdemar's case They are part of their heritage and are considered great works of universal literature.
«Each one (of the stories) is a root from where a complete literature has been developed …», I would say later Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the father of Sherlock Holmes, who drank from his source to create his mythical characters based on the figure of Auguste Dupin. Pioneer in the use of logic and deductive ability to solve their cases, it is not risky to say that Dupin's character conceived by Poe laid the foundations of what we now call detective novel.
Influenced in turn by the romanticism of Lord Byron, Keats and Coleridge, Poe created his own style that has earned him the recognition and fame he enjoys today.
There are innumerable authors who have written their works, painted their paintings or directed their films under the influence of the supernatural that populates the stories of Poe, some of the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Mallarme, Julio Verne, Manet, Dalí or Hitchcock. To Baudelaire and Cortázar, both great admirers, we owe respectively the French and Spanish translations of their stories.
To them, like Poe, we thank them for their work, and reiterate the congratulations to the latter for their 210th anniversary.
If you have been wanting to delve deeper into Poe's heritage, you can enjoy the best black and horror novels in our fantastic fear selection.