Edgar Allen Poe was an author, essayist and poet.
Like Whistler, he had failed at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Whistler and his friends greatly admired Poe's work, and Poe's poem 'Annabel Lee' (1849) is said to have inspired Whistler to make several studies: Annabel Lee y079; Annabel Lee m1077; Sketch for 'Annabel Lee' y080. He may been encouraged by Stéphane Mallarmé who gave him a copy of his new translation of Poe, Les Poèmes d'Edgar Poe.
MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995; 'Edgar Allen Poe', Wikipedia.