Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic born in 1809 in Boston who died at the age of 40. He was orphaned as a child and raised by John and Frances Allan. Poe is considered an important writer as he was part of the Romantic Movement and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, with his most famous work being the narrative poem "The Raven" published in 1845 about a talking raven visiting a sad man.