Edgar Allen Poe  Lowell, Massachusetts, late May to early June 1849 Daguerreotype

On this day – January 19, 1809 –  American short-story writer, poet, critic and editor Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe poularized the short-story and his tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story. Among his best known works are his short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and his poems “The Raven,”  “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells.” Poe died on October 7, 1849 in Baltimore at the age of 4o. As I noted in a blog post last fall – Poe visited Lowell,  Massachusetts in the Spring before he died – to lecture on American poetry. See the blog post here. Read more about Poe here at wikipedia.com.