The Raven

Much of Poe’s drive to write, to be recognized as a poet, and to engage with the gothic was primarily for his own survival. Orphaned at a young age, his relationship with is foster family was strained, and the publishing world of his time presented its own challenges to his success. He did not come from a privileged position, and thus had to make his own way as a writer, struggling with alcoholism and gambling as he went. His near constant state of poverty, which often led to periods of starvation, drove much of his writing, including who he wrote for and what he wrote.

Poe’s struggles were in many ways linked to the political and economic climate that existed in the 1830s—the Panic of 1837 (a financial crisis) sparked a period of major economic depression in the United States that lasted around seven years. The American publishing industry was both coalescing during this time—reaching more readers than ever through magazines—and struggling due to the depression. Given his desperate need for income, Poe rejected novels as too much of a financial risk, so instead he focused on writing and selling short stories for magazines. Though gothic stories were somewhat outmoded at the time, he focused on tales of horror and mystery because he knew they would sell, and he also wrote the world’s first detective stories about a French detective. “The Raven” was published as the United States began to come out of the depression, and Poe became an overnight celebrity with its success. Sadly, he was incapable of capitalizing on this success. After his wife’s death he descended into alcoholism and depression, squandering the boost to his reputation. While Poe might have been considered a bit of an outsider among his contemporaries, he achieved great the commercial success, his work reaching a broad sweep of the American public.