Mendoza 1 Rosey Mendoza English 113 Professor Womack 26 April 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Around the world,

people have read or heard of Edgar Allan Poe for his interesting writing and unusual life. His short stories and poems left an impact on literature by creating a genre for modern detective stories. Because of his contribution to literature he was nicknamed the Father of the Detective Story. Poes reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry. (Poe Museum) His works are well known to many people but the fundamental facts about his life are not. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the authors name. (Poe Museum) Poe was born to a mother named Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and father, David Poe, on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the middle child of three. At birth his name was Edgar Poe but that soon changed due to the death of his mother and the fathers abandonment. Since there was no one to care for him and his siblings, they were separated to live with other people. He was sent to live with a wealthy merchant and his wife in Richmond, Virginia for they did not have a child of their own. Early on, Poe formed a bond with Frances Allan, wife of John Allan but it wasnt the same with John. Frances and John Allan acted as a foster family for Poe but they never officially adopted him. Either way, they still gave him the name Edgar Allan Poe when he was baptized. Even in the early years of his life, Poe was interested in writing, while John Allan had already intended for him to be a businessman and a gentleman. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poes handwriting on the backs of

Mendoza 2 Allans ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business. (Poe Museum) Poe attended school in Irvine, Scotland in 1815, a boarding school in Chelsea till 1817, and a Manor House School at Stoke Newington. Poe moved back with John and Frances Allan to Richmond, Virginia in 1820. There Poe got engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster before he registered at the University of Virginia in 1826 to study languages.(Silverman) Being away for some time, they lost touch. At the university he excelled in his classes while accumulating considerable debt.(Poe Museum) Poe went to college with less than a third of the money needed to cover all his costs. Poe had soon turned to gambling to raise money, but ultimately he ended up in debt. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.(Poe Museum) Humiliated by and furious with John, Poe went back home. But Richmond, Virginia did not have welcoming news for him. He learned that his fiance Sara Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. (Poe Museum) Heartbroken and desperate, Poe left the Allans to become a pronounced poet and to venture out into the world. At only eighteen Poe published his first book Tamerlane in 1827 and later that year he joined the Army. It is not certain the reason why he joined the military but some say it was for the sake of adventure while other say it was because he was unable to support himself but in the end he enlisted in the United States Army where he served for two years. The effects of the arguments between Poe and John did not have much influence in his writing at this point. In Richmond, Virginia, Frances Allan had fallen ill and dying from tuberculosis. When Poe heard of this, he left the army to see her before she died but he returned too late. She had already been buried when he arrived. John weaken by his wife death helped Poe enlist in the United States Military Academy at West Point. Before going to West Point, he published a second collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems in 1829. While at West Point he discovered that John

Mendoza 3 had remarried and was furious with him. Poe fought with John and threatened to get expelled from West Point. A year later he did just that. In doing so John Allan cut all ties with him and left out of his will completely. After being thrown out of West Point he published another book but he had no home to go to. He never again used Allan in his name even though he kept A as his middle initial.(pg.499) Kicked out and homeless, he decided to focus on his writing career. (Poe Museum) Poe had difficulties like most writers at the time because of the financial crisis referred as the Panic of 1837. Throughout his career as a writer and editor, he struggled constantly against poverty. (pg.499) The reason being not because of laziness but for his alcohol problems and jobs simply vanished. (pg. 499) From 1831 to 1835, he went to Baltimore where his aunt Maria Clemm and cousin Virginia lived. Poe formed a motherly bond with Clemm. In 1833, he received the MS found in a Bottle for some of his poem that were published in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. (Merriman) Clemms daughter Virginia first acted as a courier to carry letters to Poes lady loves but soon became the object of his desire.(Poe Museum) In 1836, Poe and Virginia, who was thirteen (or fourteen) at the time, were married. The poem Eulalie was written to celebrate the happiness of his marriage. In 1835, Poe returned to Richmond with Virginia and Maria. He worked for a magazine called the Southern Literary Messenger. There he wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. At the magazine he established a reputation as a harsh critic. When he went to work for Burtons Gentlemans Magazine as assistant editor, he enhanced his reputation further. In 1839, he published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque and received little money for it. (Meyers) Poe left that job to take another at Grahams Magazine. He later decided to start his own journals to change to the face of the magazine industry, but failed due to no funding. (Poe Museum) The happiness of the marriage

Mendoza 4 was shaken when Virginia was diagnosis with tuberculosis in 1842. The disease is caused by a bacterial infection that usually affects the lungs but it can affect other parts of the body. The disease had already claimed Poes mother, brother, and foster mother.(Poe Museum) Now Virginia will be the next victim to fall ill and soon die from the disease. In 1845, Poe became an instant sensation for the poem The Raven. The theme of the poem is distressed and is probably written as a result of his perpetual reflection of the deaths he had already had to deal with in his young life. (Jordan) The poem is considered a great American literary work and one of the best of Poes career. (Biography.com) A year earlier he moved to New York but the failure of the magazine, the conditions of his wife, and of a rumor about Poe having a relationship with a married woman, sent him to live in a small cottage in 1846. (Poe Museum) Around this time, Poe wrote The Conqueror Worm during Virginias slow progression toward death (Jordon) and the progression also influenced The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit, and Pendulum. The marriage did not last long, not because it was not meant to be but, because Virginia died of the disease in the winter of 1847. She had made it to reach the age of twenty-four. The poem Annabel Lee is said to be about Virginia. Biographers and critics often suggest Poes frequent theme of the death of a beautiful woman stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his wife.(Weekes) Depressed and unstable he did not write for some time instead spent time traveling and lecturing. While in Lowell, Massachusetts he met Nancy Richmond. His love for her inspired some of his greatest poetry, including For Annie (Poe Museum) But the problem with Nancy was that she was unavailable. Poe instead married Sarah Helen Whitman but the marriage only lasted about a month. Some source say the engagement failed because of Poes drinking and behavior while others say the mother of Whitman ruined the marriage. (Benton) Poe returned to

Mendoza 5 Richmond, Virginia and began a relationship with his former fiance, Elmira Royster Shelton. Her three brothers and two children objected because they believed the Poe was an opportunistic drunkard who wanted to marry Elmira only for her money.(pg.500) Elmira did not seem to value their opinion because the wedding was set to take place in middle of October 1849. Life, at the moment, seemed to be smiling at him because things were turning around for him. He was soon to be married to the sweetheart of his youth (pg.500), his lectures were becoming popular, and he was offered an editing job in Philadelphia. (pg. 500) Thing were going well for him but there was someone missing. On September 27, 1849, he was planning on going to Philadelphia then New York to bring back with him Maria Clemm, so she could attend to wedding. But he never made it to Philadelphia and no one heard of him for five days. At Baltimore, he was found in drunk and confused. Poe was sent to Washington College Hospital, far away from home where he spent the last days of his life. (Poe Museum) The reason Poes fiance and Maria figured out his location was because a newspaper stated the death of Poe. Poe died on October 7, 1849. It is said that his last words were Lord, help my poor soul.(Biography.com) It was said that Poe died of congestion of the brain. (Biography.com) But the actually cause of his death has been a mystery to many. During his lifetime, Poe made many rivals. One named Rufus Griswold; he took Poes death to his advantage as a way to ruin Poes reputation. Only days after Poes death he constructed the first but false biography. Within it text it portrayed Poe as the gifted yet troubled writer as a mentally deranged drunkard and womanizer.(Biography.com) Griswolds attempts backfired and instead drove the sales of Poes books higher than they had ever been during the authors lifetime. (Poe Museum) Poe may not been one of the most famous writer during his lifetime but today in America he is closer than before.

Mendoza 6 Overall, Edgar A. Poes life was filled with tragedies that influenced his writing. Poes writing is the product of his chaotic life and continuous sorrow. The older he got, the more he realized that life was filled with harsh realities. It affected his writing; they became darker and more disturbing. (Jordan) There is a direct correlation between each death of his loved ones and the gradual darkening of the stories he wrote.(Jordan) Even at a young age Poe has been surrounded by the disease tuberculosis. The disease has token many of his love ones including his mother, foster mother, brother and wife Virginia. One of the symptoms of tuberculosis is coughing up blood. Tuberculosis takes form of the red death in the Mask of Red Death. The ending of the short story had death ultimately conquer all. It was death alone which took the greatest toll on his life, causing a domino effect of self-destruction that eventually ended his own life.(Jordan) The reason for his writings is probably the effect of death and life. But even if Poe had been surrounded by many tragedies he created many well-known works for people to enjoy.

Mendoza 7 Work Cited Benton, Richard P. (1987). "Poe's Literary Labors and Rewards". In Fisher, Benjamin Franklin IV. Myths and Reality: The Mysterious Mr. Poe. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society. pp. 125. ISBN 978-0961644918. Edgar Allan Poe. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 02:16, Apr 23, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160 Poes Life and Career. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 499-500. Print. Jordan, K. (2003). What influenced Edgar Allan Poe's Works?. In Wise Geek . Retrieved April 21, 2012 Merriman, C. D. (2006). Edgar Allan Poe. In The Literature Network. Retrieved April 19, 2012, from Google. Meyers, Jeffrey (1992). Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy (Paperback ed.). New York: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 978-0815410386. Poe's Life. (2010). In Poe Musuem . Retrieved April 20, 2012, from Google. Silverman, Kenneth (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance (Paperback ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0060923310. Weekes, Karen (2002). "Poe's feminIne ideal". In Hayes, Kevin J.. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 148162. ISBN 9780521793261.