Edgar Allan Poe

David Tenorio

English 112

Mrs. Williams

April 27, 2007

Edgar Allan Poe

Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, deserves more recognition than any other writer for the revolution of the short story from anecdote to art. He virtually created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literacy criticism of his time and has had a worldwide influence on literature.

On the day of January 19, 1809 Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Although his middle name is often misspelled as “Allen” (even in encyclopedias), it is actually “Allan.” The name Allan came along after being adopted, he felt that it showed a sign of respect towards his new family.

Edgar was the son of actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and actor David Poe, Jr. Both of his parents died before he was three years old. He was the second of three children. He had an older brother named William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger half-sister named Rosalie Poe.

He never got the chance to meet his father, David Poe. David Poe disappeared soon after Edgar was born. David Poe died in Virginia in 1810.

His mother did not handle the fact that Edgar’s father left very well. She suffered from tuberculosis, then known as “consumption.” She died in Richmond, Virginia in late 1811. She orphaned Edgar, his older brother William, and his half-sister Rosalie.

Edgar was then taken into the home of John and Frances Allen. John Allen was a successful Scottish tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia. He was then baptized, Edgar “Allan” Poe. Mrs. Frances was the one who convinced her wealthy husband to take Edgar in. It was here that Edgar was to be raised, with his early influences being the stories of house slaves and the tales told by skippers and sea merchants.

The dead and dying would always have a strong hold over Edgar, as demonstrated by the story that a six-year old Edgar was once “seize with terror” as he passed by a local graveyard. He was convinced that the spirits of the undead would run after him.

In 1815, the family went to Scotland and England, where they lived for five years. Edgar’s schoolboy experiences there added further influences to the young writer’s life.

He attended grammar school in Irvine, Scotland for a short period in 1815, before rejoining his family in London in 1816. He studied at a boarding school in Chelsea until the summer of 1817. He was then entered at Reverend John Bransby’s Manor House School at Stoke Newington, then a suburb four miles