Edgar Poe was born on January 19 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the son of

actors Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe. After the death of his parents Edgar
was taken by Frances and John Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Virginia.

Young Edgar traveled with the Allans to England in 1815 and attended school in
Chelsea. In 1820 he was back in Richmond where he attended the University of
Virginia and studied Latin and poetry and also loved to swim and act, Poe left school
and enlisted in the United States Army where he served for two years. He had been
writing poetry for some time and in 1827 his first book Tamerlane and Other Poems
was published.

When Poe’s mother died in 1829 her wish was honoured by Edgar and stepfather John
reconciling, though it was brief. Poe enlisted in the West Point Military Academy but
was dismissed a year later. In 1829 his second book Al Aaraaf, was published. His book
Poems was published in 1831 Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt Maria
Clemm, mother of Virginia Eliza Clemm. In 1833, the Baltimore Saturday Visiter
published some of his poems and he won a contest in it for his story “MS found in a
Bottle”. In 1835 he became editor and contributor of the Southern Literary Messenger.

One year later Virginia and Edgar married in Richmond in 1836 they moved to New
York City. Poe’s only completed novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was
published in 1838, but his wife death from tuberculosis in 1847 after that Poe began to
lose his struggle with drinking and drugs.

Poe’s collection of poetry The Raven and Other Poems (1845) which gained him
attention at home and abroad includes the wildly successful “The Raven” and “Eulalie”
and “To Helen”;

Edgar Allan Poe died on october 7 in 1849 but there are conflicts about the last days of
Edgar and the cause of his death. Some say he died from alcoholism and others say he
was murdered.