Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His parents were two struggling actors. After he was born, his father abandoned him. His mother died before he was three. This left Edgar Allan Poe a foster child.
Poe’s father was an alcoholic and an indigent actor. Poe’s mother was a remarkably talented actress. She was sick with tuberculosis, and at the age of 24 she died. Poe’s memories of his mother were of when she died in a painful way on a straw mattress.
Edgar was the second of their three children. When Poe’s mother died, he was left alone. He was taken as a foster child into the home of John Allan. John took Poe to Great Britain where Poe was educated.
During the fall of 1823, when Edgar was 14, one of his classmates, Rob Standard, introduced Poe to his mother, Jane Standard. Edgar went to her when he had problems at home or school. In many ways, she became his mother.
Poe graduated with the highest honors of his class for high school. After high school, Poe served in the U.S Army under a false name, Edgar A. Perry, and an incorrect age. After the Army, he attended West Point from 1830-31. After that, he went to Baltimore to live with his aunt. Poe then married his cousin.
Poe’s style of writing might have come from the fact that the death of his mother haunted him for his life. He wrote an essay, “Theory of Composition,” in which he writes, “And equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such a topic are those of a bereaved lover”. Poe wrote those in memory of his mother who died at a young age.
Poe attended the University of Virginia to study law. He then went to Boston where he published “Tamer lane” another poems. During the fall of 1838, Poe was asked by the author and scientist Thomas Wyatt to prepare a book on shells and mollusks called The Conchologist’s First book. During the summer of 1839, Poe was in need of money, so he joined the staff of a Philadelphia Journal called Burton’ Gentleman’s Magazine. On June 13, 1840, Poe wanted to raise both money and support. He announced in the Philadelphia Saturday courier that he was going to be publisher of his own magazine, called the “Penn”. Poe wrote his third volume of poetry, it did not bring fame or profit, but a prize wining short story “AMS Found in a Bottle”. He gained a bit of fame from the publication in 1845 in a dozen stories as well of “The Raven”. Poe’s longest piece of fiction was a three chapter story, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”. Poe’s experience in South Carolina provided the backdrop for some of Poe’s later tales, most of all was the “The Gold Bug” written in 1842.
Poe wrote 86 reviews, 6 poems, 4 essays, and 3 stories during the year of editorship at the Messenger. Poe would later lose his job at the Messenger because he could not control his drinking problems. Alcoholism and a mounting mental disorder made Poe quarrelsome and unreasonable, given outbursts of senseless rage. They think the drinking was to blame for his death.
Edgar Allan Poe was a fictional writer, he wrote poetry and stories. His drinking problems got him in a lot of trouble. Due to the drinking problems he lost the job of the editorship for the Messenger. Poe’s work is timeless, although he did not live very long; he produced extraordinary short stories, essays and poems. People will still be reading his work a long time from now.
Category : Authors
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