Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Even the Mystery Man's death was mysterious. Nobody is really sure how Poe died. Some suspected causes include: alcoholism, severe beating, and brain lesions. (Source.)
Well it's no wonder Poe was preoccupied with the big questions of loss and reality: the guy was an orphan. His father left when he was young, and he lost his mother to tuberculosis when he was only 3. He was taken by John and Frances Allan, hence the name Edgar Allan Poe. (Source.)
When Poe returned to the Allans from college in 1826, he discovered that his fiancée, Elmira Royster, had run off and gotten engaged to another man. Another bummer in the poor guy's bummer life. (Source.)
All the songs on the first album by the Alan Parsons Project, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination," are named after Poe stories and poems. We guess they're fanboys. (Source.)