Edgar Allan Poe's life was full of tragedies that all influenced his art. From the beginning of his writing career, he loved writing poetry for the women in his life. As he reached adulthood and realized how hard life could be, his writing became darker and more disturbing, perhaps due to his intense experimentation with opium and alcohol. His stories continue to be some of the scariest stories ever composed, which is why some have considered this to be the underlying reason for these themes. Many historians and literary enthusiasts have assumed his unstable love life as the source, while others have attributed it to his substance abuse. The influence of his one-of-a-kind writing is more than likely a combination of both theories; but the main factor is the death of many of his loved ones and the abuse he suffered. This, not surprisingly, darkened his perspective considerably. Before the age of three, Poe was already an orphan after his mother died and his father abandoned them (Frank 56). Poe was too young to remember his mother as her death occurred when he was very young, but later in his life he resented being raised as an adopted child. After the loss of his mother, Poe experienced the deaths of many other loved ones. This became the source of the terrible fear that Poe would associate with death and dying, a common theme in many of his works. Soon after his mother's death, Poe was taken in by John Allan and Frances Keeling Valentine Allan, and moved to Richmond to join his new adoptive family. His adoptive father, John Allan, continually abused him. Poe joined the army to escape his troubled family life. Poe excelled in... middle of paper... Unfortunately, Poe wrote about what he couldn't seem to escape, the constant death and loss of the people around him. The loneliness and pain that Poe experienced throughout his life were the driving force behind his work. Substance abuse was a result of the emptiness and pain Poe felt, resulting in self-destruction and the end of his own life. Despite his tragedies, he remains one of the most appreciated and beloved writers in American history. His haunting poems and stories will be read by numerous generations. Works Cited Meyers, J. (1992). Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: The Sons of Charles Scribner Frank, FS (1997). Poe's encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press..Howarth, W. L. (1971). Twentieth-century interpretations of Poe's stories; a collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.