How did Poe get introduced to writing? Who did he get his writing trait from? What incuraged him to keep writing? Was he ever one of the top writer in the world? How did Poe die? How many kids did he have? If he had any what were thair names? Are any of his children still alive? why did his parents name him Edger Allan Poe?

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

Answers

Check out www.eapoe.org for various bits like those. To answer some questions in no pareticular order: he had no children but his relatives continued the family line. Some research into geneaology.com might uncover some. Poe obviously was a natural, especially encouraged in his talents and inclinations by Mrs. Stannard and his older brother Henry. He kept up his poetry during a stint at West Point, the source of his first chapbook. He threw himself totally into the world of writing, whether articles, tales or poems, though the first two paid better and gained him magazine recognition. A southerner rising from the ranks and a fierce literary critic, he had many disadvantages against being recognized as a "top writer". His magazine writing and slim repertoire, brief popular yet intellectual style makes him an oddity in many circles yet his popularity in small selection of works of horror and imagination keeps him in the forefront. He was creator and pioneer in his century. As to heredity. His parents were actors, his mother a popular and gifted one, his father an alcoholic, frustrated actor.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001