“That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.”

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.