Edgar Allan Poe was a raven.
Edgar Allan Poe ( [ poʊ ] born Edgar Poe ; January 19 , 1809 -- October 7 , 1849 ) was an American writer , editor , and literary critic . He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole , and he was one of the country 's earliest practitioners of the short story . 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 . Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money . Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals , becoming known for his own style of literary criticism .