“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. He is best known for his poetry and short stories, especially his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure in American Romanticism and Gothic fiction, and as an important voice in early American literature. His work is most closely associated with suspense, darkness, and the unsettling edge of the imagination.