USPS 200th Birth Anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, there came a rapping at chamber door..."

USPS has done it again. On 16 January 2009, the US Postal Service issued its second commemorative stamp to mark the 200th birth anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe, who authored the above open lines of his most famous poem, "The Raven", published on 29 January 1845 to immediate critical acclaim and success. Edgar Allan Poe was previously honoured on a U.S. postage stamp on 7 October 1949 upon the 100th anniversary of Poe's death. The postmark cancellation originated from Richmond, Virginia. 

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of early American literature.

Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances. The cause of his death remains unknown and has been attributed to many causes, including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.