It's Edgar Allan Poe's birthday today! So let's take a moment to share a few fun facts about this famed literary giant and OG goth.

Why was Edgar Allan Poe so goth? Maybe his early life had something to do with it; his dad left the family not long after Edgar was born and then his mom dropped dead of tuberculosis when he was 3.

Would Morrissey and Poe get along famously? If they existed at the same time, probably. They're both moody creatives who love the macabre and Lord Byron.

Was Poe lucky in love? Not really. After a failed stint at University of Virginia, Poe returned to his hometown of Richmond, VA to find his fiancée, Elmira Royster, engaged to another man in his absence.

On the rebound, Poe eventually got involved with and then married his teenage niece, Virginia Clemm. Eeew! I guess marrying teenage nieces was more of a thing in the mid-nineteenth century. The marriage lasted less than 10 years — tuberculosis strikes again! — taking out Poe's then-24 year old wife.

After his wife's death, Poe eventually reconnected with Elmira Royster (will he ever learn?) and those two became engaged again, but the marriage never came to fruition (guess not!), as Poe died not long after the engagement.

Did Poe get into public feuds with his contemporaries? You betcha! Poe got into quite the squabble with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow back in the day. Longfellow became critical of Poe's work after Poe accused the popular author of plagiarism. If only they'd had Twitter back in the day — we'd have loved to experience that flame war!

Was Poe a defender of working creatives? Heck yeah! He was a vocal advocate of higher wages for writers and an international copyright law. A man after our own hearts!

Love Poe or other gothy literary greats? Here are a few of our favorite shirts inspired by Poe and other goth AF literary giants:

 That's it for this week! We hope you've enjoyed learning about these little Poe factoids as much as we did researching them! Till next time...

Peace, love, and morose reading,

Matt