Fill in the blanks with words from the list below.
Thanks to Poe's breakthrough suspenseful short story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", the detective story is alive and well today, ____ 2 ____ millions of readers.
Poe is best known for his graphic works of horror, which still send ____ 3 ____ down our spines and make our blood run cold. "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are two of his most popular ____ 4 _____ . Both stories describe a character's chilling ____ 5 _____ into madness and eventually murder.
For years, ____ 6 ____ have disagreed about many of the facts of Poe's life, but most agree that his life was extremely difficult.
Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 to traveling actors, David and Elizabeth Poe. His father walked out on the family when Poe was still an infant, so he learned about pain and ____ 7 ____ at an early age. Soon after his father left, he died of tuberculosis. Poe's mother died one year later, and he was adopted by John and Frances Allan.
Poe's childhood with the Allans was happy, but he later ____ 8 ____ with them. His foster father eventually ____ 9 ____ Poe, leaving him penniless. This blow came just after his foster mother became another ____ 10 ____ of tuberculosis.
On October 3, 1849, Poe was found unconscious outside a tavern in Baltimore, Maryland. His fine clothing had been replaced with ill-fitting rags. Poe was rushed to a nearby ____ 13 ____, where he died four days later.
The death of Edgar Allan Poe was as ____ 14 ____as any death he had ____ 15 ____ in his own frightening stories. Doctors now believe he died of an advanced case of rabies, but no one knows for sure. The death of this great man of mystery remains a mystery itself.