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Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, where his mother had been
employed as an actress. Elizabeth Arnold Poe died in Richmond on December 8,
1811, and Edgar was taken into the family of John Allan, a member of the firm of Ellis
and Allan, tobacco-merchants.
Poe's mother, Elizabeth Arnold Poe, died in Richmond on December 8, 1811.
After attending schools in England and Richmond, young Poe registered at the
University of Virginia on February 14, 1826, the second session of the University. He
lived in Room 13, West Range. He became an active member of the Jefferson
Literary Society, and passed his courses with good grades at the end of the session
in December. Mr. Allan failed to give him enough money for necessary expenses,
and Poe made debts of which his so-called father did not approve. When Mr. Allan
refused to let him return to the University, a quarrel ensued, and Poe was driven from
the Allan home without money. Mr. Allan probably sent him a little money later, and
Poe went to Boston. There he published a little volume of poetry, Tamerlane and
Other Poems. It is such a rare book now that a single copy has sold for $200,000.00
Moldavia, Poe's last home in Richmond located at Fifth and Main Streets. John Allan
bought the house in 1825, and Edgar lived there before entering the University of
Virginia in 1826.
In Boston on May 26, 1827, Poe enlisted in The United States Army as a private using
the name Edgar A. Perry. After two years of service, during which he was promoted to
the rank of Sergeant-major, he secured, with Mr. Allan's aid, a discharge from the
Army and went to Baltimore. He lived there with his aunt, Mrs. Maria Poe Clemm, on
the small amounts of money sent by Mr. Allan until he received an appointment to the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Meanwhile, Poe published a second book of poetry in 1829: Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane
and Minor Poems. After another quarrel with Allan (who had married a second wife in
1830), Poe no longer received aid from his foster father. Poe then took the only
method of release from the Academy, and got himself dismissed on March 6, 1831.
Soon after Poe left West Point, a third volume appeared: Poems by Edgar Allan Poe,
Second Edition. While living in Baltimore with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, young Poe
began writing prose tales. Five of these appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday
Courier in 1832.
With the December issue of 1835, Poe began editing the Southern Literary
Messenger for Thomas W. White in Richmond; he held this position until January,
1837. During this time, Poe married his young cousin, Virginia Clemm in Richmond on
May 16, 1836.
Poe's slashing reviews and sensational tales made him widely known as an author;
however, he failed to find a publisher for a volume of burlesque tales, Tales of the
Folio Club. Harpers did, however, print his book-length narrative, Arthur Gordon Pym
in July of 1838.
Little is known about Poe's life after he left the Messenger; however, in 1838 he went
to Philadelphia where he lived for six years. He was an editor of Burton's Gentleman's
Magazine from July, 1839 to June, 1840, and of Graham's Magazine from April, 1841
to May, 1842. In April, 1844, with barely car fare for his family of three, [including his
aunt, Virginia's mother, who lived with them], Poe went to New York where he found
work on the New York Evening Mirror.
In 1840, Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes
in Philadelphia. In 1845, Poe became famous with the spectacular success of his
poem "The Raven," and in March of that year, he joined C. F. Briggs in an effort to
publish The Broadway Journal. Also in 1845,Wiley and Putnam issued Tales by Edgar
A. Poe and The Raven and Other Poems.
The year 1846 was a tragic one. Poe rented the little cottage at Fordham, where he
lived the last three years of his life. The Broadway Journal failed, and Virginia became
very ill and died on January 30, 1847. After his wife's death, Poe perhaps yielded
more often to a weakness for drink, which had beset him at intervals since early
manhood. He was unable to take even a little alcohol without a change of personality,
and any excess was accompanied by physical prostration. Throughout his life those
illnesses had interferred with his success as an editor, and had given him a reputation
for intemperateness that he scarcely deserved.
In his latter years, Poe was interested in several women. They included the poetess,
Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Mrs. Charles Richmond, and the widow, Mrs. Sarah Elmira
Shelton, whom he had known in his boyhood as Miss Royster.
The circumstances of Poe's death remain a mystery. After a visit to Norfolk and
Richmond for lectures, he was found in Baltimore in a pitiable condition and taken
unconscious to a hospital where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849. He was buried
in the yard of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland.
In personal appearance, Poe was a quiet, shy-looking but handsome man; he was
slightly built, and was five feet, eight inches in height. His mouth was considered
beautiful. His eyes, with long dark lashes, were hazel-gray.
Death Theories
On October 3, 1849, Dr. Joseph E. Snodgrass received the following note:
Baltimore City, Oct. 3, 1849
Dear Sir,
There is a gentleman, rather the worse for wear, at Ryan's 4th ward polls, who goes
under the cognomen of Edgar A. Poe, and who appears in great distress, & he says
he is acquainted with you, he is in need of immediate assistance.
Yours, in haste,
JOS. W. WALKER
To Dr. J.E. Snodgrass.
This is the first verifiable evidence available of Poe's whereabouts since departing
Richmond in the early morning of September 27. His intended destination had been
Philadelphia, where he was to edit a volume of poetry for Mrs. St. Leon Loud. Dr.
Snodgrass found Poe semiconscious and dressed in cheap, ill-fitting clothes so
unlike Poe's usual mode of dress that many believe that Poe's own clothing had been
stolen. Poe was taken to Washington College Hospital on the afternoon of October 3
and did not regain consciousness until the next morning. For days he passed from
delirium to unconsciousness, but never recovered well enough to tell how he had
arrived in such a condition. For no known reason he started calling loudly for "
Reynolds" on the fourth night.
In the early morning hours of October 7, Poe calmly breathed a simple prayer, "Lord,
help my poor soul," and died. His cause of death was ascribed to "congestion of the
brain." No autopsy was performed, and the author was buried two days later. In dying
under such mysterious circumstances, the father of the detective story has left us with
a real-life mystery which Poe scholars, medical professionals, and others have been
trying to solve for over 150 years.
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Other Selected Works found at the Poe Museum
The Masque of the Red Death
http://www.poemuseum.org/selected_works/red_death.html
Published 1838
The Cask of Amontillado
http://www.poemuseum.org/selected_works/amontillado.html
Published 1847
The Tell-Tale Heart
http://www.poemuseum.org/selected_works/tell_tale_heart.html
Published 1843
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
http://www.poemuseum.org/selected_works/rue_morgue.html
Published 1841
The Fall of the House of Usher
http://www.poemuseum.org/selected_works/house_of_usher.html
Published 1839
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