Pocket Portrait’s Biography of Edgar Allan Poe Does Not Skimp on the Details

Not-so-dark or focused on horror.

Some bits of Edgar Allan Poe’s life feel maudlin. His father left the family, while his mother died in a fire at her workplace, the theater. A would-be fiancee married someone else because her father intercepted Poe’s letters and destroyed them. He was also found dead in the streets shortly after disappearing.

Other things in this biography surprised me. I actually paused when seeing that Poe had a brother and sister, and Rosalie Poe outlived him. He had a sister?? Who wrote poetry?? Do you know how few media with Poe when I was a kid showed that he had siblings?

That’s when I knew this book was going to be great. It was telling me facts I didn’t know in accessible but entertaining prose.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Master of the Macabre by Levi Lionel Leland (From Pocket Portraits)

The Poes were married actors, meaning that society wasn’t fond of them. They believed that actors were crass, dramatic, and doomed to poverty. But the Poes had people who loved them. That made it all the more devastating when the dad walks out, the mother dies in a stage accident, and the surviving family members can’t take in the…