Edgar Allan Poe

Bio

A brief biography of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (born, Edgar Poe) was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe is a legendary poet and short story writer of the macabre, dark romanticism and mystery—credited with inventing Detective Fiction and furthering the literary genre of Science Fiction and Gothic Horror.

As a young child, his father deserted the family. Within a year of this abandonment, Poe’s mother died. Now orphaned, the young Edgar Poe was fostered by an affluent merchant, John Allan. Though he was never formally adopted, he was given his middle name, Allan, by his foster father. Thus, the three-name moniker that would go down in history was complete. In 1827—when he was 18 and unable to secure funding for his education—Edgar Allan Poe enlisted in the Army under the name, “Edgar A. Perry,” and declared he was 22 years old. While enlisted, Poe published his first work—a collection titled, Tamerlane and Other Poems, anonymously attributed to “A Bostonian.” Shortly after, Poe failed out of West Point and pursued his dream of becoming a writer.

Though it was financially difficult, Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first American writers to sustain his life through writing. However, he initially put off his true creative desires and pursued a less-glamourous career—writing and editing for periodicals and working for literary journals. Through these new endeavors, Poe became known for his style (in regard to literary assessment) and also notorious as a wiseacre.

Eventually, Poe was catapulted to his station of success after publishing The Raven, which at first was declined by one magazine, a previous employer of his. However, he finally was able to have The Raven published in the Evening Mirror, which profited him a meager $9, in the year 1845. Interestingly, The Raven had various small changes made by Poe during its first few printings—some of which were minor adjustments to punctuation. Subsequent to this—and to being the editor and last owner of The Broadway Journal—the publication still failed.

Edgar Allan Poe then relocated in 1846 to the Fordham section of the Bronx where he took up residence in a quaint cottage—where he shared the last year of his marriage to his cousin, Virginia Clemm. She died soon after in 1847, rendering Poe unstable.Two years and two relationships later, on the night of October 3, 1849, Poe (reportedly unhinged) was sighted on the Baltimore streets, clearly in need of help. He was taken to the Washington Medical College where he perished a few days later on October 7, 1849.

There is no known, direct cause of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, only speculation. Some believe his death ranged from brain issues and alcoholism, while others presented a theory of how he may have been a victim of “cooping.” Non-lucid, he was unable to verbalize what had happened to him so it is ascertained he may have been drugged. On the night of his death, all he could do was repeatedly howl the name, “Reynolds.” It is believed that Poe’s last words were, “Lord help my poor soul.” On the day of Edgar Allan Poe’s interment, his nemesis, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, wrote a defamatory obituary trying to shatter Poe’s prestige. It was published in the The New York Tribune and written under the name, “Ludwig.” Griswold somehow managed to persuade Poe’s Mother-in-law to relinquish the rights of Poe’s literary works to him. Griswold now had his chance to publish Poe’s collection alongside his own, while continuing to damn Poe through a false biography—conjuring stories of alcoholism and imbalance. Thankfully, Poe still lives on through the multi-faceted influence of his works, spanning the gamut of modern pop culture. There’s even an annual award for mystery writers, presented by The Mystery Writers of American, known as “The Edgar Award.”