While never attaining any extraordinarily great financial success or universal prominence in his own lifetime, Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) may still be the first professional author in the modern sense to become at least modestly celebrated and remunerated through writing and publishing alone.
Seeking to sell stories in an effort to lift himself out of an upbringing in hardship and poverty, Poe so often channeled his real own experiences of loss, love, and penury into his work. Such tales, refined through Poe's distinct allusive metrical style and metropolitan-gothic sensibilities captivated readers up and down the antebellum US. At his peak, he would sell a new poem or short story to the papers every fortnight - and this was just enough to keep Poe stocked in the splendid garments and fine wine to which he became accustomed.
Poe died suddenly of unknown causes at age forty. Some postulate the cause of his untimely death was plainly the effects of a hard-working, hard-drinking, hard-scrabble life simply catching up to the man. But, in any case, one must acknowledge the macabre coincidence, or even aptness, in so expiring a person who wrote so personally and passionately about all things moribund, mysterious, and mournful.
And, despite Poe's early decease, he still left behind more material than some authors might produce with three-times as long a career we can evermore read and recite in his remembrance. This website already has available forty of Poe's most well-known works - stories, poems, and essays alike - listed below.
Al Aaraaf [PDF]
Poe imagines a dreamlike arabesque afterlife.
Written c. 1824. Published Dec. 1829 by Hatch and Dunning. ~3,000 words
Tamerlane [PDF]
Poe muses on the cost of ambition.
Written c. 1827. Published Jul. 1827 by Calvin F. S. Thomas. ~2,600 words
To Helen [PDF]
Poe fetes the mother of a childhood friend.
Written c. 1831. Published Mar. 1836 in The Southern Literary Messenger. ~90 words
The City in the Sea [PDF]
Herein is described as terrible a domain as Poe could ever imagine.
Written c. 1831. Published Apr. 1845 in The American Review. ~330 words
MS. Found in a Bottle [PDF]
A manuscript recovered from the Southern Ocean; an anonymous sailor recounts his deeply haunting experience lost at sea.
Written c. 1833. Published Oct. 1833 in The Baltimore Saturday Visiter. ~4,150 words
Berenice [PDF]
The scion of a ancient family details his - and his affianced cousin's - poor physical and cognitive condition.
Written c. 1835. Published Mar. 1835 in The Southern Literary Messenger. ~3,300 words
Morella [PDF]
A man reflects upon his uncommon, aromantic, marriage to a withdrawn woman of recondite metaphysical knowledge.
Written c. 1835. Published Apr. 1835 in The Southern Literary Messenger. ~2,300 words
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket [PDF]
Two young Massachusetts men rashly embark on a seafaring escapade.
Written c. 1838. Published Jul. 1838 by Harper and Brothers. ~71,600 words
Ligeia [PDF]
An anonymous narrator mournfully describes his beloved wife's beauty and intellect - and her irrepressible decline into torpor and ill health.
Written c. 1838. Published Sept. 1838 in The American Museum. ~6,200 words
The Haunted Palace [PDF]
Poe describes the degradation of a once-stately house.
Written c. 1839. Published Apr. 1839 in The American Museum. ~260 words
The Fall of the House of Usher [PDF]
A man visits the stately, but dilapidated, country estate of an old friend.
Written c. 1839. Published Sept. 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. ~7,300 words
William Wilson [PDF]
A man describes his frustration subsequent to meeting another individual of the exact same name, age, and likeness as himself.
Written c. 1839. Published Oct. 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. ~8,100 words
The Murders in the Rue Morgue [PDF]
Unconventional private detective Auguste Dupin analyses the scene of an inhumanly brutal, and seemingly impossible, double-homicide committed in the heart of Paris.
Written c. 1841. Published Apr. 1841 in Graham's Magazine. ~14,350 words
A Descent into the Maelström [PDF]
A Scandinavian sailor recalls his harrowing encounter with a massive, ship-sinking, whirlpool.
Written c. 1841. Published May. 1841 in Graham's Magazine. ~7,150 words
Never Bet the Devil Your Head [PDF]
A satire of literary moralism; Poe presents a cautionary tale concerning a young man with a habit for blasphemous wagers.
Written c. 1841. Published Sept. 1841 in Graham's Magazine. ~4,000 words
The Oval Portrait [PDF]
A weary traveler - seeking shelter within an abandoned mansion - ponders the curious portrait of a beautiful woman.
Written c. 1842. Published Apr. 1842 in Graham's Magazine. ~1,300 words
The Masque of the Red Death [PDF]
A decadent nobleman hosts a colourful masquerade ball amidst a virulent plague.
Written c. 1842. Published Mar. 1842 in Graham's Magazine. ~2,400 words
The Pit and the Pendulum [PDF]
A man fears impending death within a hellish mechanical torture chamber.
Written c. 1842. Published Dec. 1842 in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. ~6,200 words
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt [PDF]
Poe's eccentric private detective Auguste Dupin returns to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body is found in the Seine.
Written c. 1842. Published Nov. 1842 in The Ladies' Companion. ~19,900 words
The Tell-Tale Heart [PDF]
An anxious, anonymous, narrator describes how his housemate's uncanny anatomy unnerves him.
Written c. 1843. Published Jan. 1843 in The Pioneer. ~2,150 words
The Conqueror Worm [PDF]
Poe muses on mortality and inevitability.
Written c. 1843. Published Jan. 1843 in Graham's Magazine. ~240 words
Lenore [PDF]
Poe worshipfully eulogises a deceased woman.
Written c. 1843. Published Feb. 1843 in The Pioneer. ~320 words
The Gold-Bug [PDF]
A bankrupted man of once-high station discovers a gold-coloured beetle, becomes enthralled with it - and desperately implores an old associate of his to believe him that it holds the means to regaining his familial cachet.
Written c. 1843. Published Jun. 1843 in The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. ~14,150 words
The Black Cat [PDF]
A man - once particularly known for his love of keeping animals - recounts how taking in a cat upended his once-peaceful life.
Written c. 1843. Published Aug. 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post. ~4,000 words
The Premature Burial [PDF]
A cataleptic man describes his obsessive fear of being interred alive.
Written c. 1844. Published Jul. 1844 in The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. ~5,550 words
The Oblong Box [PDF]
An unnamed narrator describes the curiously atypical behaviour and countenance exhibited by an old colleague during a voyage at sea.
Written c. 1844. Published Aug. 1844 in The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. ~4,650 words
The Purloined Letter [PDF]
The talents of unorthodox private investigator Auguste Dupin are beseeched a third and final time. Now, to recover a stolen missive of immense value which the efforts of the whole Parisian gendarmerie cannot locate.
Written c. 1844. Published Dec. 1844 in The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present 1845. ~7,300 words
The Raven [PDF]
A grieving man is visited by a singularly unquieting bird.
Written c. 1845. Published Jan. 1845 in The New York Evening Mirror. ~1,100 words
Eulalie [PDF]
Poe rhapsodises of the possibility for newfound love to overcome grief.
Written c. 1845. Published Jul. 1845 in The American Review. ~140 words
The Imp of the Perverse [PDF]
A treatise on ethics within a work of fiction; a man attempts to explain why we might so often feel compelled to act against our better natures.
Written c. 1845. Published Jul. 1845 in Graham's Magazine. ~2,450 words
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether [PDF]
A traveler in the South of France visits a highly atypical mental asylum.
Written c. 1845. Published Nov. 1845 in Graham's Magazine. ~7,050 words
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar [PDF]
A scholarly esotericist attempts to prevent the death of a friend and associate - a moribund tuberculosis patient - through mesmerism.
Written c. 1845. Published Dec. 1845 in The American Review. ~3,600 words
Loss of Breath [PDF]
A comic satire of sensationalist medical fiction; a man quite literally, inexplicably, misplaces his capacity to respire.
Written c. 1835. Published Dec. 1835 in The Southern Literary Messenger. ~6,900 words
The Cask of Amontillado [PDF]
An Italian nobleman approaches a longtime rival with the offer of sharing a rare wine during Carnevale.
Written c. 1846. Published Nov. 1846 in Godey's Lady's Book. ~2,400 words
Ulalume [PDF]
Poe laments the ability of grief and sentimentality to lead one to wretched places persistently.
Written c. 1847. Published Dec. 1847 in The American Review. ~780 words
The Bells [PDF]
Poe explores the stages of life through sound and diacope.
Written c. 1848. Published Nov. 1849 in Sartain's Union Magazine. ~630 words
Hop-Frog [PDF]
A diminutive jester suffers the humiliations of a corpulent king.
Written c. 1849. Published Mar. 1849 in The Flag of Our Union. ~3,600 words
A Dream Within A Dream [PDF]
Poe ponders impermanence and materiality in two stanzas.
Written c. 1849. Published Mar. 1849 in The Flag of Our Union. ~140 words
Eldorado [PDF]
A knight wearily searches for a legendary city.
Written c. 1849. Published Apr. 1849 in The Flag of Our Union. ~100 words
Annabel Lee [PDF]
Poe describes the ability of attachment and fond reminiscence to transcend grief.
Written c. 1849. Published Nov. 1849 in The Southern Literary Messenger. ~310 words
last major update: Dec. 2025
↩ back to site landing