Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) was an American writer, poet and critic who is considered one of the most important figures in Gothic fiction. Often remembered chiefly for his supernatural and horror short stories, perhaps most notably ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’, in his lifetime he was also considered a national treasure as a poet, burnishing his reputation with the 1845 publication of The Raven.
