The Troubled Life and Literary Genius of Edgar Allan Poe

Childhood and Early Years

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. His parents were touring actors, and died when he was only two years old, so the boy was brought up by his godfather, Mr John Allan. The family, including Poe and Allan’s wife, Frances Valentine Allah, sailed to England in 1815 and moved back to Richmond, Virginia in 1820.

In 1826 Edgar went to the In 1830 he enters in West Point Military Academy but after a short period was expelled, at which point his indignant godfather broke off all contact with him. Fortunately for him, his paternal aunt, Mrs Clemm, took pity on him and gave him not only an home but the affection and tenderness of a mother. After some years he married Virginia Clemm, his aunt’s daughter, and went to New York with his family. In 1831 he brought out a volume of poems, some of which real masterpieces that show the influences of the English romantic poets.

Career and Struggles

He did not manage to find a steady job, and after several unsuccessful attempts was forced to accept occasional work on magazines and give lectures on literary criticism. The Saturday Visitor, a Baltimore paper, awarded Poe a prize in October 1833 for his short story in “MS. Found in a Bottle”. He gained a certain reputation, but poverty was his constant fate.

In 1838 he moved to Philadelphia, where he published a long prose tale, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and a year later Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. From 1839 to 1842 he edited Burton’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine where The Murders in the Rue Morgue, his first detective story appeared.

In spite of his financial troubles, this was a relatively serene period in the poet’s life, but all this came to another abrupt end when Virginia broke a blood vessel in 1842 and became an invalid. Money was not more necessary than ever, and Poe, who could not afford what they needed, began to suffer from fits of depression from which he sought relief in alcohol. The Gold Bug made him famous and he won prize money, appeared in 1845. The Raven, his most important poem, appeared in 1845, and the poet became famous all over the country.

Decline and Death

In 1847 his wife Virginia died. After this tragedy, the poet alternated between bouts of depression and moments of activity and heavy drinking, and during a trip to Baltimore in 1849 he was found dying in the street. He was taken to hospital and died a few days later.