Edger Allen Poe

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EDGAR ALLAN POE

Best known for his poems and short fiction. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most famous American poets. He deserves most credit for short suspenseful mysteries and he perfected the area of horror stories. He wrote many famous poems like "The Raven" and "The Bells". Poe was a genius and very meticulous in his stories every clue had to fit and that’s why he didn't make a lot of short stories but a small collection of great short stories.

He was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Both of his parents were touring actors; both died before Poe even reached three years old. A rich merchant named Mr. Allan in Richmond, Virginia took Poe in. His childhood was uneventful although he attended the University of Virginia in 1826 for only a year. Even thought he was a good student he ran up a large gambling dept that Allan refused to pay. This prevented his return to the university and broke-off his engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart.

Having no way to support himself he enlisted in the army. He had already written and printed (at his own expense) his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). Allan secured Poe's release from the army and his appointment to West Point but refused to give him money. After six months Poe apparently got kicked out of West Point for disobedience. His friends, however, gave money to him for the publication of Poems by Edgar A. Poe ...Second Edition (1831), actually a third edition--after Tamerlane and Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829). This book contained the famous "To Helen" and "Israfel," poems that show the restraint and the calculated musical effects of language that was characterizing his poetry.

Poe next lived in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself. In 1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories all comic or satiric. In 1833, "MS. Foun...