Does anyone have information about the mystery of poe? What drove him to write his stories/poems? i would be very grateful if you could email me some info on him that would help me answer these questions. thank you for your time!

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2002

Answers

I wish I could clear up this "mystery" once and for all. I take it this a version of the motheaten nostrum "Where did he get all THOSE ideas from?" For basic enlightenment it would be better to go to a modern writer like Stephen King's book "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft". For with Poe we suffer from having to explain the literary world he lived in when the Romantic Movement and Gothic fiction was all the rage. THEN it is vital to read a biography of Poe because he certainly does not trumpet his life story in his works. THEN his uniqueness can be dealt with...theoretically. www.eapoe.org is a safer place to start than well-intentioned fan websites that get stoke some of these impressions. Poe was very much the artist even in what passionately concerned him and wrote a wide range of essays, humor, detective stories, puzzles, reviews etc.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2002