The Genius of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the most singular figures in American literary history today. Critics have compared him to both Leonardo Da Vinci and the "Jingle Man"; either the keystone of American literature or simply a hip entertainment writer. As a person and a writer, Poe is also a collection of contradictions. One thing is certain: Few people have left a more lasting mark on the minds of readers than Poe. Subsequent authors have never been able to improve on the style created and mastered by Poe. Poe's tales have transcended generations of American readers and have endured through many changes in literary thought. One of the few things as strange and unique as Poe's writings is the man himself. Poe created his unique, strange, and disturbing tales by testing the limits of the soul, walking the line between higher understanding and madness. A Redeemed Childhood Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 in Baltimore, Maryland, to two young actors named Eliza Arnold Hopkins and David Poe. When Poe was almost three years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. This had a profound effect on the young Poe, who "always remembered - more or less unconsciously - his mother vomiting blood and being taken away from him forever by sinister men in black", according to Roger Asselineau, professor of American literature at the Sorbonne. , Paris. Within a few days, David Poe, known to be an alcoholic, disappeared. Although he was never found, it is assumed that he ran away rather than die. Fortunately, young Edgar was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia, where Poe was staying with his family when his mother died. John Allan was a successful businessman... middle of paper... and" was a literary genius whose ability to tell stories of the "grotesque" and the "arabesque" remained unmatched. Poe was in many eras a slave to his gifts and often tempted disaster. It was the fine line he walked that made him the author he was, but ultimately it was a line he would fall from, destroying his life but making him immortal to his readers' stories disturbing.BibliographyAsselineau, Roger. Edgar Allan Poe: University of Minnesota Press, 1970.Chivers, Thomas H. PhD. Life of Poe New York: EP Duton & Co., Inc., 1952.Ketterer, David Allan Poe: Life, Work and criticism Fredericton, Canada: York Press LTD, 1989. Meyers, Edgar Allan Poe His Life and Legacy New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992. Poe, Edgar A. Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe New York: Washington Square Press, Inc., 1965.