Edgar Allan Poe met his dismal fate on the seventh day of the Lonesome October in 1849. His life had been spiraling downward for several years before he died in that hospital bed, raving incoherently. Upon his death, many thought he would be remembered more for his literary criticism than anything else.

However, through the efforts of Baudelaire and others, Edgar's fiction began growing more popular in France and then the rest of Europe. Eventually, his works became so highly thought of that they rated a volume illustrated by none other than Gustave Doré. Here is how the Open Culture website puts it:

One of the busiest, most in-demand artists of the 19th century, Gustave Doré made his name illustrating works by such authors as Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, and Dante. In the 1860s, he created one of the most memorable and popular illustrated editions of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, while at the same time completing a set of engravings for an 1866 English Bible. He probably could have stopped there and assured his place in posterity, but he would go on to illustrate a 1872 guide to London, a new edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and several more hugely popular works.
In 1884, he produced 26 steel engravings for an illustrated edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s gloomy classic “The Raven.” Like all of his illustrations, the images are rich with detail, yet in contrast to his earlier work, particularly the fine lines of his Quixote, these engravings are softer, characterized by a deep chiaroscuro appropriate to the mood of the poem.

Gustave Doré became the first in the long line of truly gifted artists who have brought Poe's visions to graphic life. After that, everyone from Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac to Bernie Wrightson and Richard Corben brought their own unique takes to Poe’s classic tales.

Feel free to peruse the gallery below.