Biography

Edgar Allan Poe was a mysterious and cryptic man who has led a difficult and rocky life. He was born in Boston Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. He was the second son of the actors Elizabeth and David Poe. His parents were forced to travel a lot looking for work, and they were always in financial crisis. When Edgar's sister Rosalie was born in 1810, the money situation got worse, and David left the family a year later. Elizabeth tried to support the three kids, but she contracted tuberculosis and dies on December 8, 1811. This would be the first of many people in Poe's life who would die of this disease.
Edgar's grandfather took his brother Henry, but he couldn't afford to take the other children, so Rosalie went to live with a merchant in Richmond, and Poe went to a couple named John and Frances Allan. When Edgar moved in, John moved them to England and Scotland where they lived until 1820. They moved back to Richmond when John's business failed and Frances got tuberculosis. Edgar loved his parents and took the name Allan.
In 1825 when Poe was 16 he fell in love and got secretly engaged to his 15 year old neighbor Elmira Royster. In 1826, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia, but he didn't have enough money to support himself. He was soon gambling to try and pay his debts, but soon he was so bad in debt that he couldn't pay them himself. He asked John for help, and blamed him for being in debt saying he didn't give him enough money to support himself. John refused and become angry with Poe. Poe had to drop out in December of 1826.
Back home, Poe had to work in John's counting house without pay. He also learned that his letters to Elmira had been intercepted by her father when Poe was gone. Elmira thought Poe abandoned her, and she had becom engaged to another man. Poe had nothing left in Richmond, so he moved to Boston in 1827. He couldn't find any work there, so he enlisted in the army under the name Edgar A. Perry. He did very well in the army, and was promoted, but when social standing prevented him from rising any further he wanted to leave, and was discharged in 1829.
In February 1829, Frances Allan died. John and Poe started speaking again when Poe came home. Poe entered West Point Academy in 1830. He published a couple books, but they didn't receive a lot of attention. Poe hated West Point, and he drank heavily, and gambled a lot. He disobeyed orders, was disrespectful, and he was court-martialed in March 1831. Poe blamed John again, and asked him for more money. John had just re-married, and said no, and he ended their relaionship.
Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his biological father's sister, Maria Clemm, and her 9 year old daughter Virginia. Maria was poor, and supported herself by sewing. Maria Clemm spoke to Edgar's brother Henry, Henry and Edgar started speaking, and became close. But soon after they were reunited, Henry got sick with tuberculosis and died. Poe was publishing stories in papers, but he earned little money.
In 1834 Edgar heard that John Allan was sick. He went to Richmond to visti him, but John wouldn't see him. John died six weeks later. In Richmond, Poe got an editorship of the "Southern Literary Messenger". He was good at it, but he missed Maria and Viginia. He drank so much that it affected his work, and he was fired.
Poe convinced Maria and Virginia to move to Richmond with him, and convinced his boss at the "Southern Literary Messenger" to hire him back. At the "Messenger" Poe was known for his criticizing reviews of books which readers loved, but wasn't popular with other writers.
Poe spent a lot of his time educating his cousin Virginia, and soon he thought of her as more than a cousin. They fell in love and were secretly married in a private ceremony in 1835, and they were publically married a year later when she was 14, and he was 27. Poe continued drinking a lot and was fired in 1837.
Poe moved to New York, and cut back on driking, but he couldn't afford to live there, so he moved to Philadelphia in 1837. In May 1839 Poe got an editorial position at "Burton's Gentleman Magazine" but was soon fired for drinking again. A man named George Graham bought the magazine, and called it "Graham's" and hired Poe as the editor. Poe published many stories there, and made the magazine succesful, but he still got the same pay. Poe was still very poor, and due to lack of food and warm lodging Virginia got tuberculosis. In 1842, Poe quit "Graham's" and started drinking heavily again.
In 1843 Poe started lecturing to earn money. His lectures were successful, and he moved to New York in 1844. Started writing for the New York magaine, "The Evening Mirror" and became editor.
In November of 1845 Poe published his most famous poem, "The Raven." It made him a celebrity, and brought him in contact with other famous authors of the time. He met a woman named Francis Sargent Osgood, and they developed a mutual admiration for each other. Poe published a few books, and he began drinking again. Poe soon bought the magazine the "Broadway Journal" but he couldn't find investors for it. He fell into a drunken despair and deep poverty. Virginia's health was also decreasing. She found it more, and more difficult to breathe. Virginia had "irregular appaetite, facial pallor, flushed cheeks, unstable pulse, shortness of breath, night sweats, high fever, sudden chills, chest pain, severe coughing, and spitting of blood" (Meyers, 203). In the winter due to lack of heat and food, Virginia died in January 1847. Virginia was 24, the same age Poe's mother was when she died.
Poe fell into a deep depression, and drank more. He stated, "I became insane with long intervals of insanity." Poe tried to replace her right away. He turned to solace with the poet Fanny Osgood. He asked her to marry him, but she refused. He then went after three women at the same time: Marie Louise Shew, Annie Richmond, and Sarah Helen Whitman. he asked them all to marry him. Marie Shew was the nurse to Virginia, and she refused him. She was too religious to go for a man like Poe. Annie Richmond was married and she refused him. Sarah Whitman accepted, but soon broke it off because of his erratic behavior.
In the last years of Poe's life he moved around a lot. He moved from NY to Philadelphia, to Virginia, and Maryland. The events leading up to his death are mysterious. On June 29, 1849 Poe left NY for a lecture tour to earn money for a new project he was working on. A magazine called "Stylus." The next day on a stop to Philadelphia he was arrested for public drunkeness, and Poe lost his suitcase. While in jail, Poe had hallucinations, including one of Maria Clemm being butchered. When he was released, he was on a train back to NY when he thought the men on the train were plotting to kill him. Poe stayed in Philadelphia with his friend John Sartain. He recovered his lost suitcase, and was when he recovered he started to lecture again. In Richmond he was reunited with Elmira who had been widowed for 5 years. Poe asked her to marry him, but she refused. On September 27, 1849 Poe stopped in Baltimore, and drank a lot, and hallucinated. He disappeared for a few days, and to this day no one knows what happened to him. He was found on October 3, semi-conscious outside an Irish tavern. Poe's friend, Joseph Snodgrass saw him. He said Poe was wearing someone else's clothes. Poe was incoherent. Poe was hospitalized and was unconscious for 10 hours. When he awoke he was delirious. He died on October 10. All causes for his death is merely speculation.


				*Edgar Allan Poe* *Biography*



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