Happy 215th Birthday Edgar Allan Poe

Two hundred and fifteen years ago on January 19th, 1809, Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a talented young actress named Eliza Poe. He lived on Carver Street with his family until they hit the road with their traveling theater company and finally landed in Richmond, Virginia. Poe's father, a  not-so-talented actor with a drinking problem abandoned the family before Poe's second birthday. His mother, Eliza, died shorty before he turned three leaving him an orphan. His mother most likely had tuberculosis, but numerous deadly diseases were circulating at that time. Eliza's mother had died of Yellow Fever when Eliza was eleven.

Poe's life continued to be filled with death and tragedy. In spite of what he suffered, or maybe because of it, Poe became one of the most celebrated American writers of all time. He is credited with inventing the detective story and greatly influencing the genres of American gothic horror, science fiction, and the modern short story.

I am currently working on an amalgam of ten of his stories for my HOT ROD series (higher order thinking through the Reading of Decodables.) It is called The Raven Remix: A Mash-Up of Poe Titles. I created it to follow the rhyme and meter pattern of "The Raven." Incidentally, my middle name is Lenore. 

Yes, my mother named me after the dead girl in Poe's most famous poem. 

I've been intrigued by Poe ever since. Ravens and their mythology figure very prominently in my third young adult novel, Forget Me Not (Simon Pulse: A Division of Simon and Schuster). That novel is written in verse and contains another spoof of "The Raven." The version in Forget Me Not features Tupac song titles and reimagines the rapper as a substitute teacher. Notice how the artist who created the book cover makes the girl's hair look like raven feathers. Dante's Purgatorio and several nods to Shakespeare also figure strongly in this story about a girl trapped between life and death.

When I was in Boston for the 2023 ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) conference, I made a special trip to visit the statue created as a tribute to Poe. It's called "Poe Returning to Boston." It's just around the corner from Carver Street, the place the famous writer lived as an infant. The street is long gone, but the city has left up the sign to commemorate Poe's birthplace.

I'm planning for The Raven Remix to be out in late spring of 2024.  Follow this blog or sign up for my newsletter to keep up with background information about Poe. Throughout 2024, I will be sharing facts about his colorful life and theories about his untimely death - a mystery that has never been solved.

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. That way you won't miss any of the fun-filled activities I'm creating for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences along with interesting facts celebrating A Year of Poe.