Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar and his brother and sister were orphaned before Edgar's third birthday and Edgar was taken in to the home of John (a member of the firm of Ellis and Allan, tobacco-merchants) and Fanny Allan in Richmond, Virginia. The Allans lived in England for five years (1815-1820) where Edgar also attended school.

In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia. Although a good student he was forced to gamble since John Allan did not provide well enough. Allan refused to pay Edgar's debts as he did not approve and Edgar had to leave the University after only one year.

In 1827 Edgar published his first book, "Tamerlane and other poems" anonymously under the signature "A Bostonian". The poems were heavily influenced from Byron and showed of a youthful attitude.

Later in 1827 Edgar enlisted in the Army under the name Edgar A Perry where his quarrels with John Allan continued. Edgar did well in the army but in 1829 he left and decided to apply for a cadetship at West Point.

Before he was able to enter West Point Edgar published a book entitled "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and minor poems" , this time the book was published, not anonymously, but under the name Edgar A. Poe, where the middle initial acknowledged John Allan's name. Before Edgar left West Point he received financial aid from his fellow cadets to publish a third edition of the book. Edgar called it a second edition though and it was entitled "Poems by Edgar A. Poe" in which his famous poems "To Helen" (another version was published in 1848) and "Israfel " appeared. These show some of the musical effect that has come to characterize Edgar's poems.

Later Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and his first cousin Virginia. In 1832 he won a $50 prize for his story "MS. Found in a Bottle" in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. In 1835 Poe brought his aunt and cousin to Richmond where he worked with Thomas Willis White at the Southern Literary Messenger. He also married his cousin Virginia, only thirteen years old.

Most of Edgar's work with the Messenger were of a critical nature but he also published some literary work such as "Berenice" . His work with the writing and the editorial departments of the Messenger increased the circulation of the magazine. But his drinking habits forced White to eventually let him go.Little is known about Poe's life after he left the Messenger; however, in 1838 he went to Philadelphia where he lived for six years. He was an editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine from July, 1839 to June, 1840, and of Graham's Magazine from April, 1841 to May, 1842. In April, 1844, with very little money for his family of three, [including his aunt, Virginia's mother, who lived with them], Poe went to New York where he found work on the New York Evening Mirror.

Edgar moved around to New York and Philadelphia, trying to establish a name in literary journalism but without any major success. His theories on musical poems and short prose narratives which were to aim at "a certain unique or single effect" can be for example be seen in "Ligeia" (1838) and The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1839) which would eventually become one of his most famous stories.

In 1840, Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes in Philadelphia. In 1845, Poe became famous with the spectacular success of his poem "The Raven ," and in March of that year, he joined C. F. Briggs in an effort to publish The Broadway Journal . Also in 1845,Wiley and Putnam issued Tales by Edgar A. Poe and The Raven and Other Poems.

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is sometimes considered the first detective story. Examples of his use of a rythmic and flowing language are the poems "The Raven" (1845) and "The Bells" (1849). The Raven was a symbol of "Mournful and never ending remembrance" which is not only a good description for "The Raven " but could be applied to almost all of his work.

The year 1846 was a tragic one. Poe rented the little cottage at Fordham, where he lived the last three years of his life. The Broadway Journal failed, and Virginia became very ill and died on January 30, 1847. After his wife's death, Poe perhaps yielded more often to a weakness for drink, which had beset him at intervals since early manhood. He was unable to take even a little alcohol without a change of personality, and any excess was accompanied by physical prostration. Throughout his life those illnesses had interferred with his success as an editor, and had given him a reputation that he scarcely deserved.


In his latter years, Poe was interested in several women. They included the poetess, Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Mrs. Charles Richmond, and the widow, Mrs. Sarah Elmira Shelton, whom he had known in his boyhood as Miss Royster.

The circumstances of Poe's death remain a mystery. After a visit to Norfolk and Richmond for lectures, he was found in Baltimore in a sorry and sad condition and taken unconscious to a hospital where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849. He was buried in the yard of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

Acknowledgements to: James Southall Wilson and the Poesociety