Biography of Edgar Allan Poe

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  A legendary writer of the United States was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts; this man was Edgar Allan Poe, who would later become one of the most famous Dark Romantics in literature. At the time of his birth, he was just Edgar Poe.  Edgar’s parents were both actors. Unfortunately, when Edgar was a young boy, his mother died. His parents had been separated, therefore Edgar and his siblings were forced to live apart from each other.   At this point, Edgar began living with a successful couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Allan, and started to attend school.  Edgar attended school in England as a child, and when he came back to America chose to attend University of Virginia when he was seventeen years old. John Allan paid a very little amount of what Edgar needed for college, and as a result he fell into debt and drinking. Shortly after this Poe gave up on school altogether.

In light of all that happened, The Allan’s were disappointed and unhappy with Poe. By 1827, he did not know what to do with his life, so he decided to become a part of the U.S. Army.  Sadly, only two years later, Mrs. Allan passed away and Mr. Allan began speaking to Edgar again and supported him in his desire to go to West Point.  While he was at West Point, he stayed with some family. It was there that he met his young cousin, Virginia, who he would later marry. His stay at West Point did not last long due to bad behavior and breaking of the rules. Today, people think that maybe he caused trouble of purpose because he no longer had the money to attend West Point since John Allan was not supporting him financially.

As a result, Poe decided to move to New York.  He attempted to write poems, and was poor and alone.  In 1834, John Allan died; he had not financially supported Poe while he was in New York at all, and did not leave anything for Poe or even bring him up in his will. One year later, he began working at a newspaper as an editor, and shortly after that married his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia. Poe brought the amount of papers bought up by seven times what it was before to 3,500 with his great writing skill, but still quit his job there because he said he was not paid well. For years after that, he attempted to publish stories time and time again. Stories that Poe wrote in that time include “The Manuscript Found in a Bottle,” “Ligeia,” “The Haunted Place,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and “The Gold Bug.” He tried to publish magazines as well, but he could never consistently earn a good living; he also moved from place to place throughout his life.

After the death of his wife in 1847, Poe spiraled into an extremely unhealthy amount of stress and grief, but it is said his health later returned to normal. He continued to travel all around from state to state, attempted to break his habit of drinking, and had met another woman whom he was going to marry that October.  He never married this girl though because on October 3, he was discovered near Gunner’s Hall and was then admitted to the hospital. No one has ever really known what actually happened to him because he was never well enough to tell anyone. By October 7, 1849, Poe was dead.