The Life Story of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems usually involve death. This may be caused by the death of his Mother, whom he never knew since she died when Poe was only three years old.

Edgar All Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1809. His parents were both actors and his father actually served in the Revolutionary War under George Washington. Poe's father deserted the family in 1810, one year before the death of his mother. Poe was one of three children but never really got to know his siblings because all of them were sent to foster homes. Poe was never actually adopted but John Allan became his godfather and so Poe began living with the Allan's, who were quite wealthy.

In his early years Poe lived in England and went to boarding school for five years at the Academy of William Burke where he succeeded in athletics. Edgar returned to the United States in 1920 where he returned to his school at the University of Virginia. Although Poe did extremely well in school he had a very bad drinking problem all throughout his life and, is one of the possibilities of his mysterious death that is still undetermined today. His father also never gave him enough money for his schooling, which caused frequent quarrels between the two so Poe was forced to leave the school

Without even completing one whole year at the University of Virginia. After being rejected by his father Poe went to live with his aunt and cousin in Baltimore, Maryland.

While living with his aunt, Poe began writing prose tales. Poe left his aunt and cousin and went to New York City where he published a number of poems to a ton of magazines and they were all rejected. Poe also wrote “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” but that still didn't help his financial problems. Poe moved back to Boston where he joined the military on May 26th, 1827. When he entered into the military he enlisted as a private using the name Edgar A. Perry. Poe had published his first volume of poetry that same year which was called “Tamerlane and other Poems”. Although Poe had done extremely well in the military he only served for two years.

He moved to Philadelphia where he wrote both “Sigeia” and “The Haunted Palace”. Poe then returned to New York where he had some more of his poetry published. Two years later Poe's foster mother died. Him and his godfather tried to work out their issue for is foster mother's sake and as a last wish from her, Poe went to West Point Military Academy. Poe was dismissed from the academy a year later

Soon after Poe left West Point a third volume of poetry appeared: Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Second Edition. A year later Poe's godfather died. Before his death Poe pleaded for money in a letter but never got any. Edgar was also left out of John Allan's will. Poe was left alone, no friends, no job, and was in financial trouble. In 1835, Edgar finally got a job as an editor of a newspaper because of a contest he won with his story, “The Manuscript Found in the Bottle”. The next year Poe went back to Maryland to marry his own cousin, Virginia Clemms. He was twenty-seven at the time and Virginia

was just thirteen. Poe was found without a job again. He tried to start his own magazine called “The Stylus” but failed to make it successful. Later he became the editor of the “Southern Literary Messenger”. Poe successfully managed the magazine and raised the circulation of the magazine from five thousand copies to thirty-five thousand copies.

Poe' s first volume of short stories was published while working at the “Southern Literary Messenger”. The volume was, “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe is known well through his short stories, like “The Masque of the Red Death” which is about a Prince who tries to hide in his castle with his guests from the Red Death. It is said that Poe invented the detective stories with tales like “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”. Poe also is credited with the emerging of science fiction stories. Sometime in 1840, Poe joined George Graham as an editor for Grahams magazine. Poe was an editor for many magazines and paper.

Later in the mid 40's Poe became an editor for “The Broadway Journal”. Poe was an editor for many magazines and paper. Then came the poem that made Edgar Allan Poe famous, the dark poem of lost love, “The Raven” which was the reason for the Baltimore Ravens name. Poe wrote the poem in 1845. The year 1846 was a tragic one for Poe and his wife. Poe had rented a little cottage at Fordham, where he lived the last three years of his life, which were quite depressing.

A year later Poe's wife, Virginia, dies of tuberculosis. Poe dedicated his poem “Annabel Lee” to his late wife. In 1848 Poe suffered from depression and attempted suicide. The year after that Poe tried to stop his drinking problem by joining the “Sons of Temperance”. That same year Poe died on October 7th, 1849. He was just 40 when he died and his very last home is located in Richmond Virginia, which was called Moldova and is now a museum of his life.

In conclusion, Poe really did have a hard time in his childhood and the last three years of his life. Is depression the reason for some of his sickening stories? The fact that he never got to know his real parents and never had a good relationship with his godfather. There are many possibilities for it.