The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers, madness and other mysterious consequences involving cats, graveyards and haunting deaths. Poe, refers to likely the most influential American authors and writers of the 19th century, and non-other than Edgar Allan Poe. He was the first author to actually attempt to make a living wage solely as a writer and look to improve both copyright protections and payments for others in the literary circles. He used his surroundings to create his horrific stories, rich with psychological impact and earned the moniker of Master of Macabre, among other names such the Father of the Mystery Stories and also aided in creating the sci-fi genre. So many horror fans, have at least seen his work transformed into film, but many of the tales been in print since 1827 “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Fall of the House of Usher, ” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and of course “The Raven”.
It’s apparent very easy to understand why his is the Horror Icon of the month as he lived from who was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston and died at the age of 40, under strange circumstances (still remains a mystery) on October 7, 1849, hence marking it at 170-years of death. Once again those unfamiliar with how our Horror Icon tributes works, it honors one on their death, rather than birth, the reason simple it sums the total of the life’s impact. What I truly find amazing about Poe 170th anniversary, no one commented about it, no articles, or specials about and in fact his birthday went pretty unmentioned as it was 210-years-old, sad for all he contributes the horror genre.
His early life actually represents something very similar to what many people go through today, his parents (traveling actors) both died within three years of his birth, his father abandoned the family in 1810 after his mother died he was placed in orphanage John Allan an extremely wealthy tobacco merchant and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in the city of Richmond, VA took in Edgar however refused to formally adopt him. Poe was an ineffective businessman unlike his stepfather, but remained a gentleman and aspired to be like the British poet Lord Byron, something Mr. Allan frowned upon greatly. In 1826, Poe left to attend the University of Virginia, though he excelled in his studies Allan didn’t supply him enough money and the debt quickly accumulated, in his first term he need to burn on his furniture just to stay warm, shorty in this dire predicament he abandoned the schooling but eventually succeeded with some editing jobs and publishing some short stories, and poems, but always struggled to secure a living wage as a writer. He learns that most businessmen took advantage of the writers, cheating them out of monies for services rendered, and that often most overlooked the position, as manual labor seemed to supersede this job. In those early days a majority of the of people owning vast book collections were often those of wealth or professorships. Poe struggled for a great deal, debts for gambling and excessive drinking, wasteful spending. Nevertheless in January 1845, the publication of ‘The Raven’ made him famous but due to how it was published, also led him to lose an incredible amount of revenue, the equivalent of this is what happened to George A. Romero and the film Night of the Living Dead [1968].
Poe often credited with inventing the modern detective story with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, and very good with creating believable storylines that included the ‘concept of deductive reasoning’ which, inspired many authors, which included the well-known Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Most interesting to honor his work was that The Mystery Writers of America awards an annual writer with a Poe Award for distinguished work in the genre. However the American Horror Story, served him well, especially as had a wonderful usage of symbolism in his work and as he would use his free time to critique other authors in a ruthless fashion, sometimes earning him a negative reputation, but one that had some respectable to it too.
Now in Poe’s personal life there was some oddity to say the least, and one aspect that’s always a tad peculiar is that he married his cousin Virginia in 1835 when she was 13-years-old, and were together for 11-years until she died from tuberculosis which led Poe into a deep depression and spiraled downward in a quick two years, and while his death remains a mystery, they story of him dying in the streets penniless, is not correct. He died on October 7, 1849, it’s those final days that hold the secrets as he left Richmond on September 27, 1849 on his way to Philadelphia to see a love interest of his, but it’s stated he became ill and later died of ‘congestion of the brain’ but this led and continues to lead to endless arguments and contention among both history buffs and his alluring fan base, while most point to alcoholism, others mention rabies, epilepsy and even carbon monoxide poisoning. Poe’s death became his greatest mystery story. Decades after his death many artists in all forms of discipline remember his fight for the writers as significant by including his legend in their works. In fact, for many years after his death someone went to his original grave marker and would leave a bottle of cognac and three roses, which ended on January 19, 2009.
He’s been written about countless times and multiple versions of his works thoroughly available in likely over 120 books, there’s been at least 8 film biographies about him and 23 portrayals, include The Raven (2012) which starred John Cusack as Poe. There are over 300-comic books that either depict him, or his stories in some manner and television paid ode to his contributions in the form of unaired 1995 series entitled Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery & Imagination. However the most gothic show perhaps of all-time, the soap-opera Dark Shadows (1966-1971) developed four of Edgar’s stories into its storyline, those were “The Premature Burial”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Aside from both film and books, the biggest element that constantly pays tributes, is music some which dates back to 1974 with Queen recording “Nevermore” ode to The Raven. One of the classy versions of his poem Annabel Lee, published shortly after his death, which many consider a tribute to his late wife, was done by Stevie Nicks from her 2011 album “In Your Dreams”:
His work constantly influences artists, from the Christian heavy metal band Tourniquet’s song ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ as a tribute to Poe and other lines from his stories into their songs, Chris Violence made a 23-minute song about the story ‘The Raven’, and even the Canadian thrash band Annihilator on the explosive debut album “Alice in Hell” had a track entitled ‘Ligeia’ found here with lyrics:
Staying in the vein of metal, Iron Maiden recorded ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’ in 1981 on the album, Killers. Cradle of Filth, released in 2004 “Nymphetamie” which flushed with references to Edgar Allan Poe stories, works, and even his life, In addition on May 18, 2018, the symphonic black metal band Nimphaion unleashed “Quoth the Raven” a dark tribute to the romantism of the Poe’s literature and from Rotting Christ on their 2019’s album “The Heretics” contains a song ‘The Raven’ which of course quotes the poem of the same name.
As writer regardless of genre Poe has an ever growing resume of 470 titles, and in horror genre the number lessens to 253 titles which includes at least 11 titles as announced or pre-production those aren’t included. If Poe existed in today’s realm of filmmaking he likely would give Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz some serious competition, and his thoughts of creation likely influence them over the years and decades, and will continue to do so decades to come, filmmakers, those in school, often recreate one of them for their projects but found below is a summary of the films of the legendary and our Horror Icon for October, Edgar Allan Poe.
As of November 18, 2019 Filmography:
Writer – Video Game
Saints Row IV (2013 Video Game)
The Dark Eye (1995 Video Game)
Writer – TV Short
The Tell Tale Heart (1999 TV Short)
Tiny Toons’ Night Ghoulery (1995 TV Short)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1991 TV Short)
System (1972 TV Short)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1964 TV Short)
Writer – Video
Portal: Curtain (2013 Video)
The Horror Vault 3 (2010 Video)
The Horror Vault 2 (2009 Video)
Syner (2009 Video)
The Raven (2006 Video)
Berenice (2004 Video)
The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer: The Later Years Vol. 2 (2003 Video)
The Tell-Tale Heart (2003 Video)
Haunting Fear (1990 Video)
Writer – TV Movie
The Raven (2007 TV Movie)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986 TV Movie)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1979 TV Movie)
The Telltale Heart (1958 TV Movie)
Writer – TV Series/ TV Episode
The Fantasmagori (2017– ) Episode: The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (2017)
Masters of Horror (2005–2007) Episode: The Black Cat (2007)
The Fear (2001– ) Episode: The Black Cat (2001)
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1995– )
Episode: The Black Cat
Episode: The Fall of the House of Usher
Mystery and Imagination (1966–1970)
Episode: The Telltale Heart (1968)
Episode: The Fall of the House of Usher (1966)
Great Ghost Tales (1961– ) Episode: William Wilson (1961)
Thriller (1960–1962)Episode: The Premature Burial (1961)
Matinee Theatre (1955–1958)
Episode: The Cask of Amontillado (1957)
Episode: The Fall of the House of Usher (1956)
Episode: The Tell-Tale Heart (1956)
Lights Out (1946–1952)
Episode: The Pit (1952)
Episode: The Masque of the Red Death (1951)
Episode: The Fall of the House of Usher (1949)
Martine Emile Presents… Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask Of Amontillado
Episode: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado
The Masques of the Red Death
Episode: Episode #1.2 thru Episode #1.12
Episode: Thieves and the Knight
Writer – Feature Film
Edgar Allan Poe’s Lighthouse Keeper (2016)
Animus: The Tell-Tale Heart (2015)
Stonehearst Asylum (2014)
Creepers (2014)
Extraordinary Tales (2013)
Requiem for the Damned (2012)
The Tomb (2009)
Tell Tale (2009)
The Pit and the Pendulum (2009)
The Gold Bug (2009)
House of Usher (2008)
Nightmares from the Mind of Poe (2006)
Lunacy (2005)
The Fall of the House of Usher: A Gothic Tale for the 21st Century (2002)
Alone (2002)
Hatred of a Minute (2002)
The Mummy Lives (1993)
Tale of a Vampire (1992)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
The Haunting of Morella (1990)
Demons 6: De Profundis (1989)
The Masque of the Red Death (1989)
Masque of the Red Death (1989)
The House of Usher (1989)
Revenge in the House of Usher (1983)
The Black Cat (1981)
Night of the Skull (1974)
House of Madness (1973)
The Sabbat of the Black Cat (1973)
One Minute Before Death (1972)
Legend of Horror (1972)
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1970)
The Oblong Box (1969)
Witchfinder General (1968)
Spirits of the Dead (1968)
House of Evil (1968)
The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967)
The Black Cat (1966)
Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965)
Master of Horror (1965)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
Castle of Blood (1964)
The Raven (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Blancheville Monster (1963)
Tales of Terror (1962)
Premature Burial (1962)
Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
House of Usher (1960)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1960)
Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954)
Unusual Tales (1949)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1948)
The Black Cat (1941)
The Raven (1935)
The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935)
The Black Cat (1934)
Bucket of Blood (1934)
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
The Living Dead (1932)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Eerie Tales (1919)
Die Pest in Florenz (1919)
The Avenging Conscience: or ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ (1914)
Inspired Films
Tales of Poe (2014)