Edgar Allan Poe January 19 1809 October 7 1849 was an American writer poet editor and literary critic Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole and he was one of the countrys earliest practitioners of the short story He is also generally considered the inventor of the detec...