Edgar Allan Poe

American writer and poet

Date of Birth	:	19 Jan, 1809
Date of Death	:	07 Oct, 1849
Place of Birth	:	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Profession	:	American Writer And Poet
Nationality	:	American

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, writer, editor, and literary critic best known for his poems and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure in Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States and in American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of detective fiction, as well as an important contribution to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to earn a living from writing alone, leading to a financially difficult life and career.

Poe was born in Boston, the second child of actor David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when his mother died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never officially adopted him, but he stayed with them as a youngster. He attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack of funds. He quarreled with John Allan over funding his education and gambling debts. In 1827, after enlisting in the United States Army under an assumed name, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, credited only as "A Bostonian". After the death of Allan's wife in 1829, Poe and Allan formed a temporary relationship. Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, announced his intention to become a poet and writer, and broke up with Allan.

Poe shifted his focus to prose and spent the next several years working in literary magazines and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work took him between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1836, he married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clem, but died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, he published his poem "The Raven" to immediate success. He planned for years to create his own journal, The Pen, later renamed Stylus. But before it could begin publication, Poe died under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore in 1849 at the age of 40. His cause of death is still unknown, and has been attributed to various factors, including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.

Poe and his works influenced literature around the world as well as specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, film, and television. Several of his houses are dedicated museums. The Mystery Writers of America presents an annual Edgar Award for outstanding work in the mystery genre.

Early life and education

Plaque marking the approximate location of Poe's birth on Carver Street, Boston

Edgar Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, the second child of American actor David Poe Jr. and English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. He had an older brother, Henry, and a younger sister, Rosalie. Their grandfather, David Poe, emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland around 1750.

His father abandoned the family in 1810,[8] and his mother died of pulmonary tuberculosis a year later. Poke was then taken to the home of John Allan, a successful merchant in Richmond, Virginia, who traded in various commodities, including cloth, wheat, tombstones, tobacco, and slaves. The Allans acted as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", although they did not formally adopt him.

The Allan family baptized Poe into the Episcopal Church in 1812. John Allan alternately spoiled and aggressively disciplined his foster son. In 1815 the family moved to the UK and Poe briefly attended grammar school in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, where Alan was born, before joining the family in London in 1816. There he attended a boarding school in Chelsea. By the summer of 1817. He subsequently attended the Reverend John Bransby's Manor House School in Stoke Newington, a suburb 4 miles (6 km) north of London.

In 1820 Poe returned to Richmond with the Allans. In 1824, he served as lieutenant of the Richmond Youth Honor Guard as the city celebrated the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette. In March 1825, Allan's uncle and business benefactor William Galt, one of Richmond's wealthiest men, died, leaving Allan several acres of real estate. The legacy was estimated at $750,000 (equivalent to $19,000,000 in 2022). In the summer of 1825, Allan celebrated his great wealth by purchasing a two-story brick house called Moldavia. Poe may have been involved with Sarah Elmira Royster before registering at the University of Virginia in February 1826 to study ancient and modern languages.

Military career

Poe was unable to support himself, so he enlisted in the United States Army as a private on May 27, 1827, using the name "Edgar A. Perry." He claimed he was 22 years old even though he was 18 years old. He first worked at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor for five dollars a month. That year, he published his first book, a 40-page collection of poems called Tamerlane and Other Poems, with the byline "By a Bostonian". Only 50 copies were printed, and the book received virtually no attention. Poe's regiment was posted at Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina, and on November 8, 1827, the brig sailed for Waltham. Poe was promoted to "artificer," an enlisted tradesman who prepared shells for artillery, and his monthly salary was doubled. He served two years and was promoted to sergeant major of artillery, the highest rank a non-commissioned officer could achieve; He then wanted to end his five-year enlistment early. He reveals his real name and his situation to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Howard, who will only allow Poe to leave if he reunites with Alan. Poe wrote a letter to Allan, who was unsympathetic and spent several months ignoring Poe's pleas; Alan may not have even written to Poe to inform him of his foster mother's illness. Francis Allan died on February 28, 1829, and Poe visited his grave the day after. Perhaps softened by his wife's death, Alan agreed to support Poe's efforts to obtain an exemption in order to obtain an appointment at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Poe was finally discharged on April 15, 1829 after securing a replacement for him to complete his enlistment term. Before entering West Point, he moved to Baltimore for a time with his widowed aunt Maria Clem, his daughter Virginia Eliza Clem (Poe's first cousin), his brother Henry, and his illegitimate grandmother Elizabeth Kearns Poe. In September of that year, Poe received "the first word of inspiration I think I ever heard" in a review of his poems by the influential critic John Neale, which prompted Poe to dedicate a poem to Neale. His second book, published in Baltimore in 1829, Al Araf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems.

Poe traveled to West Point and matriculated as a cadet on July 1, 1830. In October 1830, Allan married his second wife, Louisa Patterson. The foster father eventually disowns Poe, resulting in a marriage and bitter quarrel with Poe over children born to Alan from an extramarital affair. Poe decided to leave West Point after being deliberately court-martialed. On February 8, 1831, he was tried for gross neglect of duty and disobeying orders for refusing to attend formation, class or church. He pleaded not guilty to the scheming dismissal, knowing he would be convicted.

In February 1831, Poe moved to New York and published the third volume of poems, simply titled Poems. The book was financed with the help of his fellow cadets at West Point, many of whom donated 75 cents to the cause, raising a total of $170. They expected verses similar to the satirical verses that Poe wrote about commanding officers It was printed by Elam Bliss of New York, labeled "Second Edition" and with a page inscribed, "This volume is respectfully dedicated to the U.S. Corps of Cadets". The book reprints the longer poems "Tamerlane" and "Al Araaf", but also six previously unpublished poems, including early versions of "To Helen", "Israfel" and "The City in the Sea". In March 1831, Poe returned to Baltimore to his aunt, brother, and cousin. His older brother Henry became ill, in part due to alcoholism, and died on August 1, 1831.

Publishing career

After his brother's death, Poe began a more earnest effort to launch his career as a writer, but found it difficult to make it into American publishing. He was one of the first Americans to make a living from writing alone and was hampered by a lack of international copyright laws. American publishers often made unauthorized copies of British works rather than pay for new works by Americans. The industry was particularly affected by the Panic of 1837. There was a boom in American periodicals at this time, fueled in part by new technology, but many not lasting beyond a few issues. Publishers often refused to pay their authors or paid them much later than promised, and Poe repeatedly resorted to humiliating appeals for money and other support.

After his early forays into poetry, Poe turned his attention to prose, perhaps based on John Neal's criticism in The Yankee Magazine. He placed a few stories with a Philadelphia publication and began work on his only play, Polityon. In October 1833 the Baltimore Saturday Visitor awarded him a prize for his short story "MS. Found in a Bottle." The story told him John P. Kennedy, a noted Baltimorean who helped Poe write some of his stories and introduced him to Thomas W. White, editor of Richmond's Southern Literary Herald.

In 1835, Poe became assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, but was fired by White within weeks for drunkenness on the job. Poe returned to Baltimore, where he obtained a license to marry his cousin Virginia on September 22, 1835, although it is unknown if they were married at the time. He was 26 and she was 13.

Poe was reinstated by White after promising good behavior and returned to Richmond with Virginia and her mother. He remained at the Messenger until January 1837. He has published several poems, book reviews, criticism and stories in the paper. On May 16, 1836, he and Virginia had a Presbyterian wedding ceremony performed by Amasa Converse at their Richmond boarding house, where a witness falsely testified that Clem was 21 years old.