Edgar Allan Poe

'Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."' Few lines in English have travelled as far. An Edgar Allan Poe poster honours the writer who turned gloom into an art form, and it looks right at home over a bookshelf, a desk lamp or a reading chair built for long nights.

The master of the macabre

Born in Boston in 1809 and dead in Baltimore in 1849, Poe lived a short, troubled life and left an outsized legacy. 'The Raven', first published in January 1845, made him famous almost overnight: a man mourning his lost Lenore, a bleak December midnight and a black bird perched on a bust of Pallas, repeating a single word. His tales did as much: 'The Fall of the House of Usher', 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Masque of the Red Death', and 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', whose Dupin helped invent the modern detective story.

Artists kept answering him. In France, Baudelaire championed and translated his stories, Mallarmé translated 'The Raven' in 1875 with illustrations by Édouard Manet, and Gustave Doré's engravings for the poem were published in 1884.

Why an Edgar Allan Poe poster works

His imagery is instantly readable: raven, quill and inkwell, crumbling mansions, and that famous portrait with the heavy moustache and shadowed eyes. Three styles suit him best:

• Engraving: fine black lines in the spirit of Doré and Manet.
• Graphic portrait: high contrast, almost pop art.
• Pure type: 'Nevermore' set large on a dark background.

Pairing ideas

Above a bookcase, Poe becomes the guardian of your library. Next to a Dark Academia print he sets up a candlelit study mood. And fans of Wednesday will catch the nod: the school in the series is called Nevermore Academy.

Find the rest of the shadows in our Gothic category, printed in Tunisia.