Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet and literary critic. He is considered the father of both the detective fiction genre and science fiction. Some of his most famous works include The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Poe had a tragic life, losing his parents at a young age and struggling with poverty and alcoholism. He died in 1849 in Baltimore at the age of 40, though the exact cause of his death remains unknown.