An original caricature of Edgar Allan Poe by Kyd. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems. He switched to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. He died in 1849, at age 40. The cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide and/or tuberculosis.