Overview

Poe rose from the depths of despair at age 22, disinherited and destitute, to become one of the greatest figures in American literature. At that age he had three dozen poems published and went on to do about forty more. But short stories would prove to be the genre for which his contributions were most significant. "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are two of his most enduring works. Poe virtually invented detective stories and the notion of focusing on the process of solving the crime, rather than the criminal or the act. He was notorious for writing tales told by "unresponsible narrators," whose self-deluding ways force the reader to take an active role in deciphering the mystery.