Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s literature is surrounded by ominous connotations of mysterious, eerie, grim thoughts and descriptions. Inspiration for these literary works can be traced to his biography. Disreputable stories swarm to Poe’s name like flies to a fruit bowl, but many are untrue. Stories of Edgar Allen Poe being an alcoholic, womanizing, mad man are merely stories, conjured specifically to discredit the poet.

            In reality, Edgar was born to two actors in Boston 1809 with one brother and one sister. At the age of three, Poe’s parents died, sending Edgar to live with tobacco merchants and his siblings to live with other families. John and Frances Allen lived in Richmond Virginia and hoped Poe would grow to be in the tobacco business as well, but Poe aspired to be a poet instead. With this disapproval, Edgar Allen Poe left for college and had to solely pay the two thirds of his education tuition that the Allen’s would not pay for. Poverty stricken, Poe burnt furniture to keep warm.  Poe returned in vain to see his fiancé who had already married. His anger towards John Allen grew until he finally left for the US Army in frustration. Soon, though, his step mother acquired Tuberculosis and died before Poe could return to see her. Arguing with his step father once more and getting kicked out of the Army, Poe went to Baltimore where he met his aunt Marie Clemm and her daughter Virginia. It was then that his step father died and left Poe out of his will. Poe found a writing job at the Southern Literary Messenger and began writing stunningly honest book reviews. These brutally critical reviews not only gained him fame but also enemies. Poe soon married Virginia Clemm and they lived happily. Unsatisfied with his pay, Poe traveled to New York in job search but received no better pay despite his popularity. On the contrary he was able to publish works such as The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, and most popular, The Raven. With the publication of The Raven, Poe was taken seriously and was know throughout households. Unfortunately, short after this success, his wife Virginia died of tuberculosis in1847. Unable to write, Poe made few writings after this such as For Annie, but died two years later in 1849.

            This biography embroidered with death and disparity alludes to many of the ideas that Poe played with in his literary works. As seen in Legia and The Raven, Poe questions not only what the afterlife is, but goes further to things many would not fathom at the time as to question whether there is something after death at all.