Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. He was the second of three children born to traveling actors David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe. Elizabeth was born in England and came to America as a young girl, becoming one of the finest actresses in this country. Poe’s father, also an actor, had a far less favorable stage-presence. He struggled with alcoholism which would affect both his work and his relationship with his family. Shortly after Poe’s birth, the family settled in Richmond, Virginia, where David Poe abandoned the family slightly before or right after the birth of Poe’s sister, Rosalie. It is likely that Rosalie was not David’s legitimate child, giving reason to his sudden disappearance. Scholars believe that David Poe died shortly after he left his family. On December 8, 1811, Elizabeth died of tuberculosis. Poe and his two siblings were now orphaned and taken in by different families. Poe’s older brother, William, was taken in by their paternal grandparents in Baltimore, while Poe was fostered by a stern Virginian merchant named John Allan, and his wife, Frances. They baptized Poe, giving him their last-name as his middle, creating the “Edgar Allan Poe” name that would go down to posterity. And finally, Rosalie was adopted by a well-to-do Richmond family.

In 1815, the Allans traveled to England and Scotland where the young Poe would attend some of the finest schools in Europe. The scenery provided in these countries would later influence some of his stories. By the summer of 1820, the Allans moved back to Richmond, Virginia, where Poe would make some of his finest childhood memories. Poe was an athletic young man, swimming several miles against the current in the James River, setting the local record. He met some of his dearest and lifelong friends while he was growing up in Richmond. Poe always considered Richmond his true hometown, however, he longed to feel a sense of belonging. Having never been formally adopted by the Allans, Poe was constantly reminded of John Allan’s charity, especially when Allan felt that he was behaving in an ungrateful manner. The Allans provided Poe with all of the necessities that a child could ever ask for. He was doted on by his foster mother, but always had a tense relationship with his foster father.

In 1826, the 17-year-old-Poe became engaged to his first love, Elmira Royster. With tension rising between Poe and Allan, Poe was shipped off to the University of Virginia, likely to get him out of the house. Allan sent Poe with just enough money to get to the University without enough left to purchase books or supplies. Poe excelled in his studies, but failed to make ends meet financially. Poe gambled in an attempt to make some money, but incurred a significant amount of debt instead. Apparently, he was not a very good card player. Poe had no other choice but to return to the Allan home after dropping out of college with a debt of $2,000 (about $55,000 in today’s money). Poe also started drinking while at the University, a vice that he would carry for the rest of his life. To top it all off, he returned home to discover that Elmira had married someone else while he was away.

Poe enlisted in the US Army in 1827 under the cognomen of “Edgar A. Perry” to avoid his debt collectors. He was stationed at Fort Independence in Boston, where he published his first book of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems. The author was listed solely as “A Bostonian.” This book was a small, flimsy thing with only about fifty copies printed. Today, about twelve copies are known to exist and it is one of the rarest and most valuable first editions in American literature. The last two copies that were sold at auction went for around half a million dollars.

Poe’s battery sailed for Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. Poe ranked up to Sargent Major, the highest ranking that can be achieved by an enlisted man. His primary job was working with explosives, figuring out both the math and science to build the weaponry. It took extremely intelligent people to do this work. The smallest error could have resulted in a sudden, gruesome death; or worse, a failed battle.

Poe was discharged from the army in 1828 after his foster mother passed away. He returned home to Richmond a day too late. His beloved foster mother was already buried. Poe and Allan briefly made amends while mourning Frances. Poe was able to write more poetry, which he published in his second book titled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. He then secured an appointment at the West Point Military Academy in New York with the help of John Allan, who paid for Poe’s replacement in the army.

Poe attended West Point in 1830, but purposely neglected his duties to get himself expelled less than a year later. While he excelled in both academics and military training, he realized that rigid military life was not accommodating for an aspiring poet. Poe wanted more time to focus on his writing. The result was the publication of his third book titled Poems that he dedicated to his fellow West Point cadets who were responsible for raising the funds for the book’s publication.

Instead of returning to the Allan household where he was no longer welcomed, he moved in with his paternal aunt, Maria Clemm, in Baltimore. There, along with his grandmother, brother, and two cousins, Poe found his first real home, family, and sense of belonging. The family struggled financially while they were wholly dependent on the grandmother’s pension money. Poe wrote to Allan essentially begging for monetary aid, but Allan ignored the letters.

By 1835, Poe’s brother, cousin, grandmother, and John Allan had all passed away. The wealthy Allan left nothing in his will to Poe. With his aunt Maria and his young cousin Virginia to support on his own, Poe began writing more than he had ever before. Poe submitted his story, “MS Found in a Bottle” to a contest held by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor, which won him a $50 prize. Poe also published his first gruesome horror story, “Berenice.” This story was so grotesque that he had to edit out some of the goriest parts and write an apology to the public. He made sure to remind the editor to ignore the negative response from the public and to pay attention to the subscriber list, which grew exponentially after the controversy. It was at this point that Poe knew his audience better than they knew themselves.

Poe secured an editorial job back in Richmond, Virginia at the Southern Literary Messenger, moving his aunt and cousin there with him shortly thereafter. In 1836, Poe married his first cousin Virginia. She was 13, and he was 27. Believe it or not, the age discrepancy was more unusual than the familial relation (it is legal to marry a first cousin in 17 states in the U.S. today). They had lied on the marriage certificate and marked Virginia down as 20 years old. Little is known about the true nature of this marriage. Many scholars believe that it took place out of convenience and not romance, while others think it was quite traditional.

By 1837, Poe was fired from the Messenger allegedly due to his drinking habits. He moved his family to Philadelphia where he started writing and publishing some of the most popular stories that we know from his works today: “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” He also published his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, in 1838, which eerily foreshadowed real events that would happen 46 years later in 1884.

Poe found more work editing Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine where he publishes his scathing literary reviews, making himself one of America’s harshest, albeit well-respected, literary critics. Poe left Burton’s in 1840 with prospects to start a magazine of his own. Around this same time, Poe published his first collection of tales in two volumes titled Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, but it did not get a lot of attention or acclaim. He secured another editorial position, this time at Graham’s Magazine. It was shortly after this that his wife Virginia exhibited the first signs of consumption, which is what we now know as tuberculosis. This absolutely devastated Poe, and his reliance on alcohol started to play a more major role in his life.

Poe was eventually fired from Graham’s due to his drinking. But in 1843, he published his most successful short story “The Gold-Bug,” which also won him a $100 prize. This story takes place in Charleston, South Carolina, undoubtedly inspired by Poe’s time at Fort Moultrie while he was in the army.

Poe’s growing popularity as a short story writer, literary critic, and poet allowed him to begin a lecture tour. This endeavor not only gained him a steadier income, but allowed him the opportunity to solicit subscribers to a magazine that he wished to launch titled, The Stylus. In 1844, Poe moved his family one final time to New York, where he published his most famous poem a year later, “The Raven.”

That same year, Poe came to Providence, Rhode Island for the first time in his life, by the invitation of his friend, Frances Osgood. It was during this visit that Poe laid eyes on the ethereal Sarah Helen Whitman. However, they would not meet for another three years.

Poe continued to work for different magazines in New York before he was able to buy out the owners of the Broadway Journal, becoming the sole proprietor. Unfortunately, within three months, the magazine folded. Poe claimed that he “never regarded it as more than a temporary adjunct to other designs.” In 1846, Poe published another edition of his poetry, making sure to highlight his most popular poem in the title, The Raven and Other Poems.

Poe, Virginia, and Maria retreated to the countryside where they rented a primitive farm cottage in Fordham (which is now the Bronx). The fresh air was prescribed by a doctor for Poe’s wife, who was in the final stages of consumption. Sadly, the clean air hardly helped cure Virginia, and she died from the dreaded disease a year later. Poe never really recovered from this loss. His health rapidly declined and his drinking became a more frequent. He also went on a desperate campaign over the next two years to find a woman to call his wife. He pursued four women after his wife’s death; two of which were widowed and one still married. He became engaged twice without ever actually marrying. One wedding was called off (his wedding with Sarah Helen Whitman), while the other was cancelled due to his untimely death.   

In his final two years of life, Poe published some of his greatest works. In the summer of 1848, he published what he considered his greatest work, Eureka: A Prose Poem, in which he attempts to explain the origins of the universe. Few people actually took this essay seriously, but scientists today have credited it as being the first suggestion of the Big Bang Theory.

In the fall of that same year, he began a courtship with Sarah Helen Whitman right here in Providence, Rhode Island. She had published a very flirtatious Valentine poem to him earlier that year, which ignited a correspondence that led to Poe calling on her at her home on Benefit Street. She had not known that he had seen her three years prior, but learned of this fact when he wrote her a poem recalling the occasion. It began:

I SAW thee once — once only — years ago:

I must not say how many — but not many.

It was a July midnight; and from out

A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,

Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,

There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,

With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,

Upon the upturn’d faces of a thousand

Roses that grew in an enchanted garden.

Poe immediately proposed marriage, to which Whitman rejected. After a few weeks of continued visits, strolling through Swan Point Cemetery and reading together at The Providence Athenaeum, Whitman finally agreed to marry Poe on the condition that he abstain from alcohol. It was a vice that she knew needed to end for Poe to have any chance at living a mentally and physically healthy life. In Poe’s time, alcoholism was considered a character flaw, not a disease. Sadly, many who struggled with addiction were not given the proper support or understanding. Just two days before their wedding, Whitman was passed an anonymous note that informed her that Poe had been seen intoxicated. She called off the wedding and never saw him again. However, she would go on to become one of his staunchest defenders after his death and help bring his works to readers in Europe. Whitman also corresponded with Poe’s earliest biographers to ensure that an accurate account of his life would be available to readers for generations.

Less than a year after Poe’s time in Providence, he turned up in a Baltimore tavern during a trip to Philadelphia after having been missing for nearly five days. He was delirious and wearing soiled clothes that likely did not belong to him. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he lingered in and out of consciousness for the next four days. He was never fully coherent enough to explain why he came to be in the condition he was in. In the early morning of October 7, 1849, Poe became quite excitable. With multiple nurses holding him down in his bed, pressing cold compresses to his broad and brilliant forehead, he uttered his final words “Lord, help my poor soul” and died at the age of 40. There are countless theories attempting to explain just what happened to Poe and how he came to be in the condition that he was in. None of which have ever been fully proven.

After Poe’s death, his literary rival, Rufus Griswold, took the opportunity to rake Poe’s name through the coals. He published a cold-hearted obituary under a pseudonym where he said “Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it.” He went on to publish Poe’s works in four volumes, including a memoir where he labeled Poe as a drunken, drug-addicted madman with no morals. This was false. However, many of these slanders have carried through generations. Today, there are many misconceptions about Poe that were rooted in that smear campaign after he died nearly two centuries ago.

Despite the many adversities Poe faced in life (and death), his writing was prolific. Poe set the stage for nearly every genre writer that came after him. He changed literature as we know it today, and for that reason, he has become one of the most widely read authors in the world.