Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809 to two traveling actors. He was orphaned at a young age and taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant living in Richmond, VA.

Poe’s early education took place in England from 1815 to 1820; he continued his studies in Richmond afterward. In 1826, Poe began attending the University of Virginia. John Allan did not give Poe enough money to pay for books and classes, and at some point during his short year at the university, Poe took up drinking and gambling to deal with his debts. It was around this time that he became engaged to his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royester. Her father, likely due to Poe’s poor financial status, ended the engagement. Over time, Poe’s gambling debts became great, and after several quarrels with his foster father, Poe left both the university and his family behind.

Poe enlisted in the army in 1827, publishing his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, out of pocket shortly afterward. This book sold poorly, and with only 50 copies made it is one of the rarest first editions in American literature. He got out of his enlistment early, and attended the Military Academy at West Point for a short time, and after another quarrel with John Allan, Poe was disowned.

For a time, he lived in Baltimore with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm and her children; her daughter Virginia Clemm eventually became his wife. In 1835, he married Virginia in a secret ceremony; they followed this with a public marriage a year later. Poe became editor of various journals and magazines, and through these, he published some of his works and criticism. He even tried to start his own journal, The Stylus, which never took off.

Virginia began to show signs of consumption in 1842, and her slow death took its toll on Poe. He published a few works during the period of her illness—notably “The Raven,” which gave him a good deal of success and fame despite his having received only $9 for its publication—but he stayed close to his wife’s side, especially as her condition began to worsen. Her death in 1847 affected him strongly, and he began to drink heavily once more after having abstained for a long period of time. Although he courted a few women following her death, he never remarried.

On October 3, 1849, Poe was found in a delirium on the streets of Baltimore wearing clothes that weren’t his own. His condition never improved enough for him to explain what had happened, and he died in a hospital on the 7th of October. Interestingly enough, all of his medical records including his death certificate have been lost. Speculations as to the cause of death continue to this day, ranging from things like cooping (a corrupt voting practice in which people are forced to vote for a certain candidate), suicide, murder, cholera, rabies, syphilis, heart disease, and the list goes on.