Self-destructive, melancholic and usually dressed in black, Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) was the rock star of American Literature in 1830's and 1840's. while mos writers of his time strove for the apperance of middle-class respectability, Poe was touch by scandal from his earliest days until his death, the circumstances of which remain unresolved. Sadly, the controversial details of his life which were made to appear even more scandalous by the publication of an unfavorable obituary written by former friend and the executor of his estate, Rufus death.