Draft:List of biographies of Edgar Allan Poe

This is a list containing the various book-length biographies written and published concerning the life of the writer Edgar Allan Poe. The exact use of "biography" has been contested by Poe scholars: Esther F. Hyneman lists a total of 34 works published before 1973, while Scott Peeples includes the 206-page summary of his life by Marie Bonaparte. Peeples lists a further six English-language biographies published between 1973 and 1995.

Rough timeline of writing (change over time)
Early biographers relied on the ability to contact Poe's acquaintances.

William Fearing Gill claimed to have been "brought into relations of near friendship" with some of those who knew Poe through writing his 1877 work.

Materials used + focus
According to Scott Peeples in Biography, most biographers writing after Griswold have used the letter from Poe's doctor John J. Moran to Maria Clemm to describe his death. He criticises writers like Jeffrey Meyers for using Moran's statements without criticism.

Scott Peeples wrote that "Biographers tend to read Poe's work into his life, to treat his writing as biographical evidence, and conversely, to interpret stories and poems as allegories of his life experience".

Books considered "best"
Several biographies of Poe have been considered the "best" or "most complete".

Arthur H. Quinn's 1941 biography of Poe was described by James Southall Wilson as "the best of the lives of Poe".

Articles for reference

 * List of memoirs by first ladies of the United States