Edgar Allen Poe

Childhood Born January 19, His parents were actors. Father abandoned him as at birth His mother died when he was three years old from tuberculosis. Foster child to John Allen. Allen was a tobacco farmer from Virginia. Moved to England with his foster family and was educated there.

Young Adulthood Returned to America and attended the University of Virginia. He was an avid gambler, but not a good one. He accumulated huge gambling debts which his foster father refused to pay. He left UofVa and moved to Boston.

He joined the Army and briefly attended West Point; however, he was dismissed from the military academy. He moved to Baltimore when he failed to reconcile his relationship with his foster father. Lived with an aunt and married her daughter his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clem, in 1836.

Poe’ wife Virginia Poe’s Tombstone Depiction of Poe as a child

Professional Life He began as an aspiring journalist and magazine editor. While working towards owning his own magazine, he gained some fame for his short stories and poems: “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Goldbug”, “The Raven and Other Stories” (1845).

After his wife’s death in 1847, he began to drink, do drugs, and womanize. He was found semi-conscious in a tavern and died shortly thereafter from too much alcohol in Source: