iterature. In 1843 he sold 300,000 copies of The Gold Bug (592). Also in 1843 Poe published one his greatest works, The Tell-Tale Heart (Poe Edgar Allan, Encarta Encyclopedia n. pag). Then again in 1845, Poe struck gold with his twelve stories in Tales and 30 poems in The Raven and Other Poems (592). In 1848, Poe explained his theories on the universe in his well-known piece, Eureka (Poe, Edgar Allan, World Book Encyclopedia 592). In 1843, Poe wrote the timeless classic of The Tell-Tale Heart (Encarta N. pag). It was the poem, Raven that brought Poe the most recognition and finally provided a spot for him among Americas greatest writers. Writers and critics were bestowing great praises to him during this time. It was with his stories of mystery and murder featuring C. Auguste Dupin that inspired one critic to write, Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it? (Quinn 139). It is not enoughcertainly for literary criticism it is not enough to call his stories, strange, extraordinary, fantastic (Edgar Allan Poe, The Dark Genius of the Short Story n. pag) is a perfect quote to summarize Poes works and their effect on critics and people. This period of tranquility and good tidings would turn out to be Poes last. In 1847, Virginia Clemm died of tuberculosis and in doing so added one more name to Poes list of lost loves (Poe, Edgar Allan, World Book Encyclopedia 591). Her death had affected Poe more greatly than any other of his former loses. Poe was once quoted saying: Each time I felt all the agonies of her deathand at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitivenervous in a very unusual degree. During these fits of absolute unconsciously I drank, God only knows how often or how much. (Buranelli 38) Despite the tremendous agony Poe felt over Virginia Clemms death, he still passed a sigh of relief over her passi...
