‘You might call him the Leader of the Cult of the Unusual,’ (Jules Verne). Edgar Allan Poe was a captivating author. His writing had a major influence on recent literature. His whole life is comparable to a roller coaster with so many twists unforeseen.
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1906, in Boston, but he considered Richmond his home and called himself a ‘Virginian.’ Poe’s natural parents, David and Eliza Poe, were travelling actors. He had two siblings, Henri and Rosalie. Poe doesn’t remember his father or have a clear image of his mother. However, he does remember the feeling of love his mother gave him. When Poe was only two years old, his father walked out on their family. Only one year later, his mother died of tuberculosis. Poe and his siblings were taken in by foster families in Richmond.
His new foster parents were John, a wealthy tobacco merchant, and Frances Allan, who had no children of their own. Poe took the name Allan with him, as it was his foster parent’s last name. Mrs. Allan was very fond of Poe and wanted to adopt him, but Mr. Allan insisted that blood was thicker than water and was never as loving toward Poe as his wife was. Poe’s foster father gave him just enough money to attend the University of Virginia, but soon he needed to pay off more expenses. Poe attempted gambling to earn money. Poe was amazing at everything in the world, it seemed, except gambling. He quickly lost any money he had left and was in the debt of many.
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During the winter, Poe had to burn his furniture to keep warm. He asked his foster father, Allan, for help, but he didn’t provide any. When Poe was home, he was constantly in arguments with Allan. After an especially bad quarrel with his foster dad in 1826, Poe left the University of Virginia and headed to northern Boston where he published his first book: Tamerlane and Other Poems. His poems reflected the rift between him and his Richmond family. Poe later enlisted in the U.S. Army and briefly joined a military academy at West Point. When he finally came home, his fiancee had been engaged to another man.
Subsequently, by the time Poe was twenty, he had published several poem books. Soon, his foster mother died of tuberculosis, so Poe went to Baltimore to live with his aunt and cousin. He had a hard time publishing his books because the editors tried to take advantage of his life. There weren’t many rules that editors had to follow, so they weren’t fair to the authors. Poe visited Allan for that last time, as he lay dying. Yet even so, Allan still threatened Poe on his deathbed. When John Allan died, he left Poe out of his will and provided to an illegitimate child that Poe had never met.
After Allan’s death, Poe moved back to Richmond and continued editing books and magazines. He was ruthless when he reviewed people’s work and earned some enemies because of it. Poe still lived in poverty but continued publishing many short stories. He soon gained editorial position working on a magazine called the Southern Literary Messenger. This is where Poe found his life’s work as a magazine writer. —When Poe was twenty-six, his aunt, Maria Clemm, sent Poe a letter proclaiming that his cousin, twelve-year-old Virginia, was being sent to another relative’s residence.
Poe wrote an anguished letter about how he had realized his love for Virginia and couldn’t stand for her to be sent away. Soon after, he brought Virginia to Richmond. They married there when Poe was twenty-seven, and Virginia was only thirteen. Their years of marriage were happy but poor. Poe continued to edit the magazine, the Messenger, but all too soon he was unsatisfied with his wage. Poe moved to Philadelphia, then New York, and worked as an editor for many different magazines. He published his book of short stories called the tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque. Poe helped set higher wages for writers and improved the national copyright law. When he published the poem The Raven, he became more well known. Large crowds came to his lectures, and Poe rose to running the Broadway Journal.
Yet though much in his life seemed to improve, his wife’s health began to fail, and negative rumors started spreading about him, driving Poe and Virginia to a tiny cottage in the country. A few years later, at age twenty-four, Virginia died of tuberculosis. Poe lived only two years longer. After his wife’s death, Poe went back to Richmond in the summer of 1849 and reconnected with his first fiancee, Elmira Royster Shelton, now a widow. They intended to marry after Poe went on a trip to Philadelphia and New York. On the way to Philadelphia, Poe stopped in Baltimore and disappeared for five days. He was later found in the polling place of a bar room that was used for public election, passed out on the ground, wearing clothes that weren’t his own. He was sent to a hospital but received poor treatment until someone finally recognized who he was. Nonetheless, though he was then given excellent medical care, it was too late. Poe died two days later, surrounded by strangers. The cause of his death is still shrouded in mystery.
Bad luck seemed to haunt Poe’s every step, even after his death. His roller coaster life ended with a steep descent. Yet the world finally began to see the significance in his writing. He is now so well known that eighth graders write papers about him. His influence on literature had a world-wide impact. Edgar Allan Poe may have died poor, but his name will live on forever.
Work Cited
- “Edgar Allan Poe Museum : Poe’s Life, Legacy, and Works : Richmond, Virginia.” Poe’s Biography | Edgar Allan Poe Museum, 8 Oct. 2018, www.poemuseum.org/.
