Wes Phillips

I grew up in Charlottesville, VA, where E.A. Poe briefly attended college without matriculating. I used to visit Poe's bedchamber, which has been preserved as a memorial,and gawp at artifacts that almost certainly had no connection to him. Somehow I had the impression that we Charlottesvillians appreciated his gothic world view more than other folks.

Over the years my infatuation with Poe ebbed and waned. My early love for him gave way to my realization that many of my peers didn't find him "cool." Later, I discovered that Poe was cooler than many of my friends, as I discovered his baroque tales and even his rigidly metrical poetry—which lends itself gloriously to being set to music.

I like this Neil Gaiman essay on Poe, which describes a similar lifetime relationship.