Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

Combining, with a light touch, shrewd psychological analysis and literary appreciation, highlighting Poe’s journalistic career and the interest of many lesser-known writings, this masterful exploration of the ways in which the incidents of Poe’s life inform his work has much to engage and delight any fan of Poe.

As a poet and novelist, Robert Morgan deftly explains the subtle, subliminal effects of Poe’s texts, and he counters the gloomy emphasis of many earlier biographies by underscoring the author’s courage in the face of recurrent adversity.

Morgan does what literary biography ought always to do, mixing a facility for humane storytelling with sound scholarly analysis. He captures Poe’s haunted world, where what is strange is beautiful and what is beautiful is strange.

Morgan masterfully weaves together the threads of Poe’s life, literature, and legacy while uncovering the love-starved romantic too often hidden behind his popular image as a horror master.