Criticism of Edgar Allan Poe

"Poe started to drink heavily, use drugs and had a gambling problem again". "Awhile after Virginia's death Poe encountered several more women". "The one who he became the closets to was Helen Whitman". "Poe even asked Helen to marry him but she refused the marriage". "Poe then attempted suicide with several overdoses of laudanum". Poe then became a alcoholic again who suffered many relapses" (Comprehensive Research and Study Guide of Edgar Allan Poe). Poe's life as a child an as an adult were pretty horrible times.
             Poe had a very hard time before he became famous for his writings. "Poe first gathered money from his classmates to publish some poems". He was expelled for this. "He then went to Baltimore and got a job with the Southern Literary Messenger". "After awhile working there he became the editor". "Late in 1839 he published a volume of 25 stories enrolled Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque". "In 1841, he became a well salaried editor of Grahams Magazine which he contributed The Murders in Rue Morgue". This story marks the invention of detective stories. "In 1845, Poe published probably his most popular work called "The Raven" which became an instant hit". "A couple years after "The Ravens" success, Poe died on October 7, 1849" (Encyclopedia of World Biography 234-235). Poe had a very hard time becoming famous after everything he went through.
             There are many critics who all have different views of Poe's works and Poe himself as a critic. Most critics who have negative things to say about Poe are all the same. Maya Angelou the author thinks, "even his works are somewhat over valued because Poe's critics understandably became excessively eager to see him vindicated" (5-6). Maya Angelou also thinks "Poe's genius was for negativity and opposition" (11). "In any tale that demonstrates the values of heightened intellectual powers, the narrators laziness of mind is marked".