Short Biography of Poe

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 when poe was three years old. Edgar was taken into the family of John Allan.

After attending schools in England and Richmond, young Poe registered at the University of Virginia..Although he was a good student, he ran up large gambling debts that Allan refused to pay. Lacking any means of support, Poe enlisted in the army. He had, however, already written and printed (at his own expense) his first book,Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself.

Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and married Virginia, who was thirteen years old.In 1838, The Fall Of The House Of Usher , a story which Poe considered his finest, was published. In 1841, The Murders in the Rue Morgue was published. It is considered as the “first detective story”

In February 1847, Poe's young wife died of consumption. Poe was devastated by her death and penned these words, "Deep in earth my love is lying and I must weep alone."

During the years following Virginia's death, Poe's life was taking a steady turn downward. He suffered through a suicide attempt, several failed romances and engagements, and a largely unsuccessful attempt to resurrect his failing career after alcoholism and depression.

Poe died at the age of 40 in October 1849 in Baltimore. Although the exact circumstances of his death remain unknown, it seems clear that his death can be attributed to the effects of alcoholism. A contemporary of Poe's at the time remarked, "This death was almost a suicide, a suicide prepared for a