[A] magisterial critical biography. . . . Kopley excels at elucidating how Poe's life influenced his work. . . . Blending rich literary analysis with new insights into Poe's character, this proves there's still plenty left to say about the master of the macabre.

Kopley brings authoritative insight to a critical biography of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) that can well be called definitive. . . . A richly detailed, sympathetic portrait.

Thoughtful and compassionate . . . [a] tale of success and setback, temperance and bacchanals, playing out across the Atlantic seaboard and end-stopped by a death no less tragic for being in the cards. . . Where Kopley really excels is in connecting the life back to the work.

Filled with fresh information and illuminating detail, Richard Kopley’s Edgar Allan Poe: A Life is a work of great erudition and insight. Sure to become an indispensable resource, Kopley’s long-awaited biography is the worthy capstone of a distinguished career in Poe studies. Kopley tells us he has read and researched Poe for so long, the writer has become a friend. Read Edgar Allan Poe and make him yours.

Superbly researched and engagingly written, Richard Kopley’s biography of Poe draws from an extraordinary range of sources, many of them previously untapped. Kopley gives us the real Poe, separated from myth and legend. In doing so, he makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of one of the greats of world literature.

In what is destined to be the definitive biography of one of America’s most pioneering and influential writers, Richard Kopley’s Edgar Allan Poe: A Life reveals in meticulous detail the struggles and triumphs of this singularly complex man. Kopley provides intimate, revelatory readings of Poe’s masterpieces and lesser-known writings while narrating his tormented subject’s personal story. Historically detailed and artfully crafted, this is a magisterial work animated on every page by Kopley’s compassionate and clear-sighted scholarship. Edgar Allan Poe emerges as a fully formed human being forever convinced of his genius no matter how heavily his many life struggles weigh on him. Kopley’s Poe is cause for celebration among scholars and lay readers alike.

Essential reading in Poe studies and valuable to a wide audience. Its combination of fresh archival discoveries, judicious critical analysis, and vivid storytelling makes it suitable for high school through graduate study, for libraries, and for general readers interested in Poe’s life and work . . . Kopley succeeds in his stated goals “to bring Poe to life” (4) and to make him accessible to as wide an audience as possible, often through “new stories about Poe” (3). Written by one of the foremost Poe scholars, Edgar Allan Poe: A Life is poised to become the standard biography for a new generation.

This is a great biography, faithful to the life in good times and bad. It is highly original—using previously unseen, personal primary sources—deeply moving, and a real pleasure to read. Kopley offers us the best of both worlds: an up-close, personal account of Poe the man, the son, the friend, and the husband as well as an insightful and dependable critical study of Poe’s works and literary career.

It is well that a writer of such canonical importance should have a definitive biography, and Richard Kopley certainly seems the man to write it.

What sets [it] apart is the sheer scope of the work and the depth of the world it depicts . . . This substantially researched volume handsomely rewards readers' attention. As exhaustive as the biography is, it generally avoids becoming dry or academic, instead taking readers through Poe's turbulent life and work at a brisk clip. . . Edgar Allan Poe is a brilliant biography that brings the celebrated Poe to life.

More than from any other Poe biographer, we get the nuances of the writer’s life, almost on a day-by-day basis . . . an indispensable way of re-creating the whole man. . . It is a poignant story told by a biographer who has spent a lifetime acquiring the material and the insight that will make his work for a long time to come the standard biography of Edgar Allan Poe.