It’s Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday, and I’ve been reading up on him (and re-reading his most famous poem). Any excuse to paint a raven!

Things I didn’t know about Mr. Poe until today:

• He was one America’s earliest practitioners of the short story, and considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre.
• He married his 13 year old cousin when he was 27.
• He died at age 40 under mysterious circumstances. The cause of his death has been variously attributed to alcoholism, substance abuse, suicide, murder, cholera, hypoglycemia, rabies, syphilis, influenza, and that Poe was a victim of cooping.
• His character was thoroughly assassinated by a rival after his death.