Edgar Allan Poe's Biography

Edgar Allan Poe was a literary god in his time as well as now. He wrote many gothic short stories and poems which caught the attention of numerous readers. Poe was born January 19th in Boston in 1809. He had one sister Rosalie and a brother, Henry. Their parents had separated and the children were living with their mother until she died in 1811. Henry was fortunate enough to go off to live with his grandparents while Rosalie and Edgar went up for adoption.


Poe's adoptive family had a good deal of money and therefore sent him to good schools where he got a quality education. Edgar even went across seas to learn Latin and French when he was six, which he excelled in when he went to university in 1826. No more than a year later he started drinking and ended up in debt forcing him to quit the University of Virginia. His foster dad disowned him and without any education, money or job history Poe had no choice but to move to Boston to join the army. There he excelled and became sergeant major.

A couple years later his foster mother died so his foster dad, having no one left, reached out to him offering to pay to send him to West Point. Once there however, Poe's foster dad cut him off and eventually, due to misbehaviour, Poe was dismissed. Without any financial help, friends, and job, Poe moved to New York to publish some of his stories. He had no luck for the longest time until he won a contest with his story "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle".

He became an editor of a newspaper and eventually brought his extended family (his actual aunt and cousin) to live in New York with him. Edgar, 27 years old, married his 13 year old cousin Virginia. For years Poe moved from paper to paper trying to get more of his stories to sell. He even tried starting his own paper but that failed. In 1847, Virginia died and Poe was deeply distraught. He regained his physical health later that year however his mental health was still questionable. He was an alcoholic, moving from New York to Philidalphea to Richmond trying to find a steady job with high income. He went to leave Richmond to go back to New York however took the wrong train and was found in Baltimore where he was taken to the hospital due to his constant lapses in and out of consciousness. He died in the hospital October 7th, 1849 from unknown causes. The mystery of Poe's death is another aspect which draws readers to his many gruesome short stories and poems. (poestories.com)