7 best short stories - Cats

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. His parents, both touring actors, died before he was three. He was raised by John Allan, a prosperous Virginian merchant. Poe published his first volume of poetry while still a teenager. He worked as an editor for magazines in Philadelphia, Richmond and New York, and achieved respect as a literary critic. It was only with the publication of The Raven and other Poems in 1845 that he achieved national fame as a writer. Poe died in mysterious circumstances in 1849.

A. B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson was born at Narrambla, New South Wales, in 1864. He practised law until 1900, when he found success as a writer, contributing ballads to the Sydney BULLETIN. During the Boer War, Paterson worked as a war correspondent for the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD and remained in journalism, continuing to write poetry and fiction, and broadcasting as well. He died in 1941.