The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author associated with Dark Romanticism and the closely related Gothic. He was born to David and Eliza Poe in Boston, Massachusetts, but lived with his adoptive parents, John and Francis Allan in Richmond, Virginia, after his mother’s 1811 death; his father had abandoned the family the previous year. In 1827, Poe joined the United States Army and was stationed at West Point in New York, where he failed his training as a cadet officer. He turned his focus to writing full time. In January 1845, he published his poem “The Raven” to immediate success. Another well-known poem, “Annabelle Lee,” is widely believed to have been based on the 1847 death of Poe’s cousin and wife, Virginia Clemm; they had married in 1835, when she was only 13 years old. On October 3, 1849, Poe was discovered half-conscious on the streets of Baltimore, wearing clothes that did not belong to him. His attending physician said that Poe’s final words were, “Lord help my poor soul.” His death certificate was lost and his cause of death is unknown, though many suspect it was a complication of alcohol use.

Poe worked as a writer, poet, literary critic, and editor but is perhaps best known for his short stories, which influenced the development of numerous literary genres, including science fiction and detective literature. With his invention of the private investigator C. Auguste Dupin (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Purloined Letter”), Poe arguably created the modern mystery genre. Nevertheless, Poe’s financial success in life was limited. Poe’s military and publishing careers were marred by his unreliability, which his probable alcohol addiction almost certainly contributed to. The narrator of “The Black Cat” is one of several figures in Poe’s work who share their creator’s experience with substance use, and the story serves as a cautionary tale about The Consequences of Alcohol Addiction.