Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

Poe was the second son of the English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe, Jr., an actor from Baltimore. Poe's father deserted the family in 1810 and a year later, Poe's mother died from consumption. Young Poe was then taken in by John Allan, a rich southern merchant. The Allans served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe",though they never formally adopted him. When Poe was six years old, the Allans moved to England, and for five years Poe attended the Manor House School. Poe and his foster-father often quarreled during his adolescence and as soon as he was able to leave home, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia. While he was there, Poe earned a good academic record but incurred huge gambling debts. This so incensed his guardian that he refused to let him continue. Poe returned to Richmond only to find his sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster, engaged to another man.

Unhappy at home, Poe left for Boston, where he arranged for publication of his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). He then joined the army. Two years later, when he was a sergeant-major, he received a discharge to enter West Point, to which he was admitted with Mr. Allan's help. Again, however, frustrated by the paltry allowance he received from his foster father; Poe arranged to be court-martialed and dismissed. Poe's next four years were spent in Baltimore, where he lived with an aunt, Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia; these were years of poverty. When Mr. Allan died in 1834, Poe hoped that he would receive some of his foster-father's fortune, but he was disappointed. Poe was forced to turn from writing poetry, which he was deeply fond of to writing stories, for which there was a market. He published five tales in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier in 1832, and became an editorial assistant at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond in December 1835. The editor of the Messenger recognized Poe's genius but despaired at Poe's tendency to drink. However, Poe continued producing stories, and while he was advancing the reputation of the Messenger, he created a reputation of his own — not only as a fine writer, but also as a keen critic.

Poe married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1836, when she was fourteen years old. He left the Messenger the following year and took his aunt and wife to New York City. There, Poe barely eked out a living for two years as a free-lance writer. He did, however, finish a short novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and sold it to the Messenger, where it was published in two installments. From New York City, the Poes moved to Baltimore, and for two years, the young family lived in even more dire poverty than they had in New York City. In May 1839, he was hired as a co-editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. Because of his drinking, Poe lost his job the following year. Fortunately, Poe's former employer recommended Poe to the publisher of Graham's, and once again Poe found work as an editor while he worked on his own fiction and poetry.

In January 1842, Virginia, burst a blood vessel in her throat. Although she recovered, Poe's restlessness began to grow around that time, as did the frequency of his drinking bouts. He left Graham's and attempted to find a new position, for a time angling for a government post. He returned to New York where he worked briefly at the Evening Mirror before becoming editor of the Broadway Journal and later its owner. On January 29, 1845, his poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror. Overnight, Poe became famous.

In 1846, the Broadway Journal failed and Poe moved to a cottage in Fordham, New York. It was here that Virginia passed away of illness in 1847. Poe was increasingly unstable after his wife's death. He attempted to court poet Sarah Helen Whitman who lived in Providence, Rhode Island but their engagement failed, purportedly because of Poe's drinking and erratic behavior. Poe then returned to Richmond and resumed a relationship with his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster. Poe had some forebodings of death when he left Richmond for Baltimore late in September 1849. There he died, although whether from drinking, heart failure, or other causes is still uncertain to this day. He was buried in Westminster Presbyterian churchyard in Baltimore.

Music Credits: Helen 2 by Nikos Spiliotis
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