Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to drifting actor parents. Denying his parental responsibilities, Edgar’s father abandoned his wife and children, leaving her to support the family as best she could. He died somewhere around 1810. His mother traveled through various cities acting in as many stage performances as she could get, but the struggle eventually took a toll on her health. Towards the end of 1811, shortly after turning 2, while in Richmond, Virginia, she became ill and died.

However, somehow on the third of October he was found in a Baltimore tavern wearing clothes and barely conscious. He died the following Sunday morning. Poe’s life was filled with heartbreak and disappointment and didn’t see popularity until his later years. It is the events in his life that were the major influence in his writing. Such as stories where a character is denied a great wealth, such as Poe had been when John Allan remarried.

Poe was born on January 19th 1809 in Boston Massachusetts(biography.com). He passed away on October 7th 1849, after being found unconscious in Baltimore, Maryland (poetryfoundation.org). When Poe was only a year old both his parents split up, and because of that he never really knew his father(biography.com). Also his mother passed away when he was only 3, so he had little to no memory of her(biography.com). After his mother’s death Poe had to live with a tobacco merchant and his wife(biography.com).

However, a little research into past will certainly open the doors to a better understanding of his writing. Abandoned as an infant by his father, Poe lost his mother to tuberculosis at the age of three, and was sent to live with foster parents. There he was raised but never adopted. Also, his relationship with his foster father was quite tumultuous. Shortly after their death, he married his cousin Virginia Clemm, who also ended up contracting tuberculosis and died after a long hard battle with the disease.

Eliot proclaims, “As for the prose, it is recognized that Poe’s tales had great influence upon some types of popular fiction” (Eliot 24). The Incredible Adventure of Rider Hoggard was inspired by him. Detective fictions and just about everything else traces to Poe. The Brilliant and Eccentric Amateur originates from him. Poe’s influence, moved other authors to write great stories, yet that still isn’t the end of his greatness.

Shortly after Poe was born, his father abandoned the family in 1810 and the following death of his twenty-four year old mother in 1811, left Poe an orphan at the young age of three. Poe was adopted by a guy named john, who was a strict unemotional tobacco merchant and his wife Frances Allan, a week women with health issues. His original grandparents only took in his brother William Henry instead of Poe. He was educated with his father’s aid, in private schools, excelling in latin, writing verse, and declamation. Regardless of his education Poe was looed down upon and was considered an outsider by the upper class of Richmond society.

Frances was very loving toward Poe, but sadly died of tuberculosis just before he went to college. Poe attended the University of Virginia, but then dropped out and enrolled at West Point. He was soon expelled and then began a life of drinking and gambling. Poe gained some credibility from his poems, stories, and book reviewing, but he never earned very much money. When Poe was 27 he then married his 13 year old cousin, only to watch her die of tuberculosis just like his mother and Frances Allan.

As a result, Edgar and his siblings became separated. John Allan took in Edgar where he was christened as Edgar Allan Poe. Three years later the Allan’s moved to England where he attended Manor House School for three years. Even though Edgar performed very well in school, he only seemed to remember his school days in London as lonely and unhappy. After three years, they returned to Virginia but Poe felt abandoned constantly.

David was not as popular an actor as Elizabeth was and therefore drank for his miseries before leaving the mother of three to fend for herself and the children. (“Edgar Allan Poe.” Edgar Allan Poe.) Elizabeth Poe died on December 11, 1811 from tuberculosis, which is a disease that destroys the lungs. Edgar, his older brother and younger sister were orphans and then separated into different relative and foster homes (Lange, Karen E. 10-11). Edgar went to live with a wealthy tobacco seller, John Allan and wife Frances.

He was an actor by profession and a heavy drinker. Edgar was never very close with his older brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, because he had been left with his paternal grandparents around September 1807 for what began as an undetermined amount of time. In July of 1810 David Poe deserted his family and died shortly after. His death was most possibly alcohol elated. Elizabeth was still pregnant with their youngest child, Rosalie, who was born that December, at this time.