Edgar Allen Poe

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Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe, a great 19th-century American author, was born on Jan 19, 1809, in Boston, Mass. Both his parents died when he was two years old, and he was taken into the home of John Allan, a wealthy tobacco exporter of Richmond, Va. Although Poe was never legally adopted, he used his foster father's name as his middle name. After several years in a Richmond academy, Poe was sent to the University of Virginia. After a year, John Allan refused to give him more money, possibly because of Poe's losses at gambling. Poe then had to leave the university. In 1827 he published, in Boston, Tamerlane and Other Poems. This was the first volume of his poems, and was published anonymously. The book made no money, and next Poe enlisted in the United States Army under an assumed name. After he served two years, his foster father arranged for him to be honorably discharged and to enter the United States Military Academy, also known as West Point. But, within six months, Poe was dismissed because of neglect of duty. Poe then began to write stories for magazines. In 1831, he published Poems by Edgar A. Poe, which he dedicated to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy. In 1833, he won a cash prize for the story MS. Found in a Bottle. In 1835, he jointed the staff of the Richmond Magazine, Southern Literary Messenger. Within a year, the circulation of the magazine increased seven times thanks to the popularity of Poe's stories. Soon, however, Poe lost his job with the magazine because of his drinking. In 1836, he married beautiful Virginia Clemm, the 13-year-old daughter of his aunt. The following year he lived in New York City and the next year he drifted to Philadelphia. There he became associate editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He contributed literary criticism, reviews, poems, and some of his most famous stories to this magazine. In 1840, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, a two-volume set of his stories....