The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe read by Vincent Price. Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), American poet, critic, short story writer, and author of such macabre works as “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1840); I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life - the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it - I paused to think - what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?
Young Edgar traveled with the Allans to England in 1815 and attended school in Chelsea. Edgar Allan Poe Museum : Poe's life, legacy, and Works : Richmond, Virginia. Poe: About the Man. Poe: About the Man Who was Edgar Allan Poe?
He was an antebellum Virginian, a journalist, a performer, an amateur scientist, and, as the son of an actress, a social outcast. These factors shaped both the man and the literature he produced. The result was the birth of American Literature.