(Original daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe taken by Edwin H.
Manchester, on the morning of November 9th, 1848, [Public Domain] via Creative
Commons)
Few authors have mastered
channeling the dark, eerie and macabre nature of the world like the great poet
and author, Edgar Allan Poe. Even in his earliest years, Poe was intimately
aware of the frustrations and burdens that can plague a life cursed with
misfortune.
Elizabeth Arnold Poe gave
birth to Edgar in 1809, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Elizabeth was an
actress from Britain working in the United States, and her husband, David Poe
Jr., also worked in the acting business in Boston. David and Elizabeth Poe,
however, did not raise their son for long. Unfortunately, David Poe abandoned
the family shortly after the birth of his son, and Elizabeth Poe died in 1811,
when Edgar Allan Poe was only three years old. When he grew up he had little,
if any, memories of his real parents.
With no immediate family able
to take care of him, Edgar Allan Poe was taken in by the Allan family in
Richmond Virginia as a foster son. Edgar’s relationship with his new foster father,
John Allan, was rarely, if ever, stable or friendly. Mr. Allan wanted his
foster son to be a businessman, but Poe stubbornly strived to be a poet and a
writer. John Allan never adopted his foster son and would continue to have a
tense relationship with Poe for the rest of his life.
When Edgar Allan Poe reached
his mid-to-late teens, his life began to look up. Yet, in keeping with his
mystique, soon most of his ambitions and ventures came crashing down on top of
him. Between 1825 and 1826, he left home to attend the University of Virginia,
leaving a fiancé or sweetheart named Sarah Elmira Royster to wait for him as he
completed his education. Poe’s foster father, John Allan, however, did not
provide his ward with enough money to pay his foster son’s tuition and living
expenses. To make up the difference, Poe turned to gambling. Unfortunately,
this only made him fall into debt. In less than a year, Poe was dismissed from
the University of Virginia for lack of funds. If that was not bad enough, another
sad surprise was waiting for Poe back in Richmond. Sarah Royster had become
engaged to another man during his absence.
With little family support
and no relationship tying him to Richmond, Edgar Allan Poe headed to the city
of Boston and eventually joined the United States Army in 1827. He spent the
next few years in the military, estranged from his foster-family. Yet, when his
foster mother, Frances Allan, fell seriously ill with tuberculosis in 1829, Poe
quickly traveled back to Richmond, Virginia. Unfortunately, she died before he
arrived home. With the death of Frances, John Allan and Poe tried to mend their
broken relationship. That same year, in 1829, Edgar Allan Poe received an
honorable discharge from the military at the rank of regimental sergeant major.
Soon after, John Allan helped his foster son gain attendance to the prestigious
U. S. Military Academy at West Point.
Yet, the weak façade of a
good relationship between Allan and Poe quickly shattered with time. Edgar
Allan Poe was eventually dismissed from West Point for ignoring his duties. The
cause remains unclear, but it resulted either from John Allan ending the funds
for his foster son’s education or Poe intentionally seeking dismissal to anger
his foster father. Another theory is that the former incident caused the
latter.
With no family support and no
major income coming from his two published poetry books, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) and Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829), Edgar Allan Poe wandered
the east coast, trying to find a way to get by. His life would only begin to
turn around when he settled down with his aunt, Maria Clemm, from 1831-1835.
There, he began to increase his reputation as a writer and met his wife,
Virginia Clemm, whom he married in 1836. Yet, despite periods of success and
happiness, he unfortunately continued to struggle for the rest of his life.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edgar-Allan-Poe
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edgar-allan-poe
- https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/edgar-allan-poe
- https://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160
- http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/
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