Edgar Allan Poe

by Thomas Streissguth

Presents the life of the nineteenth-century American author famous for his detective stories, horror stories, and poetry.

112 pages, Library Binding

First published February 1, 2001

Reviews

[David Dunlap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid biography of Poe. The organization could be tightened a bit: the text seems to wander around, much like Poe in his later years. I appreciated the incorporation of short plot bits about some of Poe's major works. I salute the goal of the book -- to make things interesting as well as readable for struggling readers -- but the unvarying style of Subject + Predicate + Object for 95+% of the sentences is very monotonous.

[Becca Hay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biographical novel recounts the life and works of the famous American author, Edgar Allen Poe. Though Poe's life was fraught with serious troubles such as alcoholism, gambling, deliquency, etc. the author, Tom Streissguth, gently approaches these subjects for his younger audience and presents them in a fashion by which children understand the severity of the problem through the consequences emerging from those acts. The novel begins with Poe's parents' history and chronologically follows his life from birth to death. During his time of writing, Streissguth includes a summary of Poe's works as well as excerpts from the short stories and poems. This book is great exposure to not only Poe as the man, but his character as seen through his writings. Streissguth does not claim Poe to be a model citizen or of good character; rather, he shows the character flaws but makes sure to include the genius of the writer as well. I enjoyed reading this work and would suggest it to a 12+ audience for the stories, while interesting, can get a bit dry and detail-oriented at times. My favorite part of the work was seeing the author praise Poe through showing his many accomplishments. Having many failures in his life, many times people forget how genius Edgar Allan Poe truly was and though not all of his works were accepted by the public, the ones which did gain acceptance were loved and admired by all! Streissguth also attributed Poe as the author who influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character of Sherlock Holmes, a fact missed by many readers who attribute Doyle as trailblazer for the "detective novel." This book was a good, comprehensive recap of Edgar Allan Poe's life and accurately portrayed the man and writer in true form.

[Gage · Rating 5 out of 5]

poe was born in massachusets son of david and elisabeth poe traveling actors he was also in the military when he needed money poe would write comic strips to get him money he has rote a few amazing books he was also married to his 13 yr old niese at 17 pretty messed up if you ask me he was a vary weird man with every thing he did. poe was very great writer he wrote many books one of his most famous ones is raven he usaly writes messed up stories. one if my favorites is the Black Cat he killed his best friend in this story a black cat his pet very ,essed up story but entertaining.

poe had a realy weird life his parents were traveling actors then he moved on to be in the military. He has realy made an impact on story writing for everyone in a good strange way. he practicaly died from over druging him self and drinking in the streets of maryland baltamore he was dilirious and needing medical attention soon after being picked up he died at 5pm october 7 1849. so he killed himself.

I realy loved poes books stories and other stuff he has done. poe is amazing an is completly insane. i would love to find a book with more info in him though. poe your one crazy dude.
I would recomend this biography he is awesome.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a very intersting, yet simple, biography of Edgar Allen Poe. It goes into depth of Edgar's family, the biggest points of his life, and his overall character. It follows him as he writes for one magazine, then is out of a job and struggles with drinking. The book also goes into his different relationships with women and his uncle, where he got the "Allen" in his name. The book also refers to his relationship with his cousin, Virginia, and his devastation at her death.

This book is a great book for younger readers in the Young Adult reading spectrum. It is simple, upfront, and informative. There are pictures and some words are defined so that kids who don't know the bigger words can understand what they mean. It seemed like an unbiased point of view. The only things that I wish was that it was a little more...colorful, or interesting. I could see a kid having trouble with reading the book unless they were already interested in Poe.

[Shelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this biography on Edgar Allan Poe and would have given it a higher rating if not for the fact that is was filled with spoilers of numerous of Poe’s short stories. My daughter and I are about to begin a unit of Poe for Language Arts, and as always I start with a biography about the covered author. Never has a book given away so much information about material we are about to read. If this is not a problem for you or your student then it is an excellent read and would be perfect for any middle/high school classroom or library and a wonderful source for a biography report.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought I should read a book about Mr. Poe as we will "host" him in April 2013 for our next
Big Read.