Critical Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
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His father left the family less than a year after Edgar’s birth and his mother who was ill died on December 8, 1811. Poe was taken into the home of
John Allan who became his foster mother. This family educated Poe until they moved back to Richmond. There, little Poe made a good friendship with Ebenezer
Burling. At this age Poe had showed amazing ability for remembering details and creating ideas from his own imagination. He even wrote poetry on little bits of
paper. He wrote almost everything in his poetry: pretty girls he met, romanticism, and even his later specialty, horror and death Porges 2-12.
Day by day passed by, because of some economic problems related to his companies, Poe’s foster father got very busy and sensitive and he spent less time
with Poe. However, Poe still had companions from Rob Stanard and Robert Mayo. One day, Rob Stanard introduced his mother to Poe and somehow little
Poe loved Mrs. Stanard very much. Mrs. Stanard gave her affection to Poe, she listened to his poetry and she comforted Poe. Poe adored Mrs. Stanard very much,
but later Mrs. Stanard became very ill and on April 28, 1824 she died. This fact shocked and dragged Poe in a deep sorrow. He lost his first perfect love, Mrs.
Jane Stanard and it was taking a long time to make him recovered from the sorrow. He recovered from his sorrow after he re-wrote the script of famous
Greek story, Helen of Troy, and he changed it into To Helen which represented his great love to Mrs. Stanard. He never knew that death, terror, and evil things
would always be near to him Porges 22-28. The teenage Poe continued his life but his relationship with his foster
father, Allan, was not getting better. One day, Allan asked him whether he wanted
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to go to University of Virginia and of course Poe was happy and worried at the same time since he had to leave Elmyra, his “girlfriend” and of course his foster
mother and Aunt Nancy. He promised to come back to Myra and he would marry her when he came back. At the University of Virginia, Poe began his studies in
schools of ancient and modern language but life in university was not the same as his expectation. Poe described people in University as wild people; they were
drinking liquor, fighting among each other, and gambling. Not surprisingly, Poe was influenced by his surroundings. He started to play and his gambling debts
were increasing a lot and these made Allan mad. Allan never sent him money again since that and seemed that he did not care about Poe’s future. Being
frustrated, Poe decided to move to Boston in April 1827 Porges 37-53. His life in Boston was not getting better, but with the rest of his money,
he printed Tamerlane and Other Poems which contained 40 pages in May 1827. Having had no money, Poe enrolled himself to the US army with his fake name
Edgar A. Perry and his fake age 22. He was put in a group named Battery H. First Artillery and he left Boston to Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor. He was
fascinated by the beauty from every detail in Sullivan’s Island and he stored them in his memory. Later, about 15 years, he used what he had observed to write his
famous story, The Gold Bug. On March 1, he got message telling him that his foster mother was dying. He hurried home to Richmond but he arrived on the day
after Mrs. Allan was buried. He became very sad; he lost two women he had loved, Mrs. Stanard and Mrs. Allan who always supported him. Softened by his
wife’s death, Mr. Allan agreed to discharge Poe from the army. Poe moved to
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Baltimore and lived there with his grandmother, his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, his cousin, Virginia, and his elder brother, Henry who was sick. There, his poems titled Al
Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Other Poems was published by Hatch and Dunning in November. Poe went back to his home in Richmond where his foster father who
was pleased by his success and his aunt lived. It was not long until he quarreled again with his father and left the house. On August 2, 1831 his brother, Henry Poe
died Porges 55-72. Edgar lived with his grandmother, aunt, and cousin poorly. He sent his
works several times to competitions or newspapers but he got no payment from that until he won one of them. On October 12, 1833 The Visiter announced the
Manuscript Found in a Bottle as the winner. Edgar won the 50 prize. That was his beginning of success but in early 1834 he heard that Allan’s health was failing
rapidly so he went to visit him but he was refused by Allan and he was kicked out from the house. When, John Allan finally died on March 27, Edgar did not get any
cent from him. Moving back to Baltimore, Poe started to write stories for the Southern Literary Messenger and received small payments from that. However,
another shocking incident happened when his grandmother, Mrs. David Poe died on July 7. It was a great sadness to the whole family including Edgar Allan Poe.
Loneliness yet led Edgar to drink and use opium Porges 73-93. Poe’s habit of drinking could be stopped when finally he asked his aunt
and Virginia moved to Richmond where he worked for The Messenger. He wrote stories and criticism which helped the popularity of the Messenger. Edgar then
married Virginia. He described his cousin yet his wife with “her childlike shape,
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beautiful pale skin, high forehead, and bright eyes was perfect woman” Porges 95. Later he used Virginia for his biggest inspiration for some stories such as
Berenice, Eleonora, and Ligeia. The story of Ligeia was printed in a Baltimore Magazine in 1838. The characteristics of Ligeia were like his dear Virginia.
During this success period, Poe’s works such as The Fall of the House of Usher 1839, Murders in the Rue Morgue 1841, and The Gold Bug 1843 were
printed Porges 95-106. Back before when The Gold Bug was released in 1842, Edgar noticed the
serious illness of his wife, Virginia, was the same disease that had taken the life of his brother, Henry Poe. In May, 1842, Edgar left Graham’s Magazine and he then
worked for Griswold and in the same year, another story of terror, The Mask of the Red Death was published. This was followed by his other stories, both about
detective stories such as The Mystery of Marie Roget and terror and death stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum. For the sake of Virginia’s condition, Poe,
Virginia, and his aunt moved for a while to a farmhouse where Virginia could see the river and the green of woods and fields. There, Poe wrote his later greatest
poem, The Raven. It was first published on January 29, 1845 in the newspaper, The Evening Mirror. In November 1846, one of his best stories, The Cask of
Amontillado was printed in Godey’s but only few months later on January 30, 1847 Virginia died at the age of 24. This was the biggest tragedy of all during
Poe’s life; his heart was broken into pieces and it was the start of his decreasing period Porges 112-128.
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After the death of his beloved wife, Virginia, Poe started to drink heavily and moved from city to city. He also made relationships to several older women.
However, Poe still wrote some stories during this period such as Hop-Frog. Edgar Allan Poe died on Sunday, October 7, 1849 after previously carried to
Washington College Hospital on Wednesday, October 3 Edgar Allan Poe.