Edgar Allen Poe (is not just the depressed fifteen year old goth girl's soulmate).
....that's Robert Smith. I KID I KID. no seriously, every depressed kid I knew that was into books and/or poetry went through a Poe phase. and who was right there besides them? me, and the ghost of Poe. quoth the raven. (that poem was actually written in Pennsylvania. there's some inn or something in central Pennsylvania that uses that as their "claim to fame," despite the fact that Baltimore is all like POE IS OUR SON LET'S NAME THE FOOTBALL TEAM FOR A POEM and why aren't more football teams named for poems! thanks Wenli for that bit of knowledge). nevermore, nevermore. I prefer to think of Poe as the father of the modern detective novel. Think the Murders in the Rue Morgue. Though I didn't particularly care for that, or say the Telltale Heart or the Pit and the Pendulum (although the Vincent Price movie based on it? very nice very nice!) or okay I AM NOT A POE FAN. but he turned 202 yesterday (Poe, I'm sorry you weren't alive to celebrate this ...