Edgar Allan Poe
During the 1800’s many romantic writers emerged as the best writers of the time. Edgar Allan Poe, a dark romantic, was the creator of detective stories and perfected the psychological thriller. Many aspects of Poe’s life and his writings distinguished him from other authors. Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and short stories had a worldwide influence on literature. Poe’s stories and poems were influenced by three major aspects of his life: his ambition and purpose to write, his abandonment and depression, and his drinking and drug habits.
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to parent who were touring actors. His father, David Poe Jr., and his mother, Elizabeth Hopkins Poe, both died before Poe was three years old. He was taken into the home of John Allan and brought up partly in England. Although Poe was never legally adopted Poe took Allan’s name for his middle name. In 1826, Poe attended the University of Virginia but was expelled for not paying gambling debts. Allan was not happy with this and later disowned Poe. In 1827, Poe joined the U.S. Army as a common soldier under an assumed name and age. In 1830, he entered West Point and was dishonorably discharged the next year for intentional neglect of his duties. Little is known about this time in his life, but in 1833 he lived in Baltimore with his father’s sister. After winning a fifty dollar prize for his short story, “MS found in a Bottle,” he started a career as a staff member of many different magazines. During these years, Poe wrote some of his best-known stories. In 1836, Poe married his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm. In 1842, Virginia ruptured a blood vessel and remained an invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later. After Virginia’s death, Poe began to struggle with drinking and drug problems. In 1849, he addressed his famous poem, “Annabel Lee,” to her. Poe’s first collection, Tales of the Grotesque and...