EDGAR ALLAN POE: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was a renowned American writer of outstanding poetry, short stories, novels, essays, romantic journalism, and criticism. His work stands out from the rest of the literature of the time for its peculiar dark and gloomy atmosphere.

Orphaned since he was a child, he had to live a time of great social upheavals in his country, such as: slavery, racism, war in the north and south, among many others. These aspects were decisive in his work, covering it with those Dantean airs.

Edgar Allan Poe. By unknown; photographed by Rufus W. Holsinger (1866? - 1930) <(Per above), via Wikimedia Commons

Since he was little he loved letters, particularly poetry, reading it - especially Lord Byron's - and writing it. His poems fell in love with more than one woman. He was an innovator in all perspectives, to the point that he is considered the creator of the detective story. It gave new air to the Gothic novel and set the tone in the short story.

He had a great passion for letters, being one of the first American writers to take on the business of living fully from writing. He did not succeed, and in fact, that brought him great misfortune. However, his effort served as an incentive to the new litters of writers and the time invested in his work made it transcend.

Biography

Birth and first steps

Edgar Allan Poe was given birth in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809. He was the second of three children born to David Poe and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, both actors. His father left the family bed in 1810 and then, a year later, his mother died of tuberculosis.

Following the dramatic incidents, Poe was sent to the home of John and Frances Allan's family in Richmond, Virginia. The man worked as a merchant, being very well known and wealthy. This marketed with items such as wheat, fabrics, tobacco, and also the slave trade.

Even though the Allan family home provided everything necessary for the child's care and growth, just as if he had been adopted, the formal paperwork was never done. However, Edgar assumed the surname "Allan", and with it constituted the name with which he would be immortalized.

John Allan played an important role in the life and work of the writer, and not specifically because of being good to him, but because of his constant mistreatment and lack of recognition of his literary passion. However, Frances, her stepmother, did consecrate a genuine love to her, which balanced the family atmosphere.

Trip to Great Britain

Poe was just 6 years old when the Allan family traveled to Britain. It was 1815. There Poe briefly attended a school in Irvine, Scotland. In 1816 he traveled to London, where he studied at a boarding school in Chelsea, and then in 1817 he was enrolled at the Manor House Institute, where he studied until 1820.

At that college, run by Reverend John Bransby, he learned to write Latin and speak French. That gothic setting and the cloudy and sad climate influenced his writings. His memory was impregnated with those places and their people. His stepmother shared his nostalgic feelings, in that they had a great affinity.

Return to the USA

In 1820, and motivated by the failed business he had in London, John Allan decided to return to Richmond. Back in Virginia, Poe attended the most prestigious colleges in the city. He received a high education that was magnificently complemented by that received in Great Britain.

At the English Classical School he studied Virgil, Homer, Cicero, Ovid, all the greats of classical letters. That literary encounter broadened his perspectives and the forms of his later writing.

In addition to his formal training, he used to study the writings that came to him. It was normal for him to be seen among the slaves, listening to their tales of ghosts, curses, cemeteries and corpses. All these elements were seeded early in the writer's imagery.

In 1825 John Allan received an inheritance of $ 750,000, which greatly improved the family's situation.

Heartbreak, desertion and militia

Around this time Poe became engaged to his first love, Sarah Royster, and a year later, in 1826, the poet enrolled at the University of Virginia where he briefly studied ancient and modern languages. It was an institution with very strict rules, but the students managed to break them.

By then the gaps between Poe and John Allan were widening. Poe could not bear the mistreatment and abuse of the merchant and John did not accept the literary perspectives of the young writer.

The situation worsened when Poe, to get more money and support himself, started gambling and, in conjunction with it, drinking. The games of chance put him in networks of vices and debts and John used that to get rid of the young man, taking advantage of the fact that he never formalized his adoption.

As if that were not enough, and after a year of studies, Poe withdrew from the university, motivated mainly because he found out that his girlfriend and fiancee decided to marry Alexander Shelton.

That event destroyed the young man. To forget what happened, and to be able to support himself financially, he enlisted, under deception, in the US Army. He swore he was 22 years old when he was actually 18, and he also said his name was "Edgar A. Perry." There he earned a mere $ 5 a month, but they helped him somewhat.

Military career and early works

His first book was titled Tamerlane and Others Poems (Tamerlán and other poems). It was published in 1827. He signed it as follows: "By a bostonian" (for a Bostonian). Poe himself claimed that most of the poems in the book were written before he was 14 years old, which was not surprising for his talent.

Only 50 copies of the book were printed, and then, practically, it was relegated to oblivion. Poe put great effort into his time in the army, so much so that with two years of service he earned the rank of artillery sergeant major (the highest rank noncommissioned officers can receive).

Poe, exhausted by military work, decided to desist that year. To achieve this he confessed all his lies to his superior, Lieutenant Howard. The military man agreed to help him on one condition: that Poe reconciled with John Allan, his stepfather, so that he would intervene for him.

Boston, Poe's hometown. Source: pixabay.com

Many letters were sent to John Allan without a reply, until finally, months later, he did reply. The merchant's silence responded to a fact that Poe considered macabre: Edgar's stepmother, Frances, was extremely ill and was told nothing.

Fateful news

When the writer was finally able to get out of military service, it was to get to the Allan house the day after Frances's funeral. Poe never forgave John for silence. Upon reaching the grave of his stepmother, Edgar collapsed, losing consciousness. Always, for the rest of his life, he referred to her with much love.

Following the death of Frances, the only one who could reach John's heart, Lieutenant Howard proposed to Poe that he finish his military degree. The poet accepted. In 1829, on April 15, Edgar enlisted again at West Point.

Before going to West Point, Poe went to visit his aunt Maria Clemm, where he met his cousin, and later love of his life, Virginia Eliza Clemm. There was also the older brother of the poet and his grandmother.

In that place he published Al Aaraaf, Temerlane an Minor, which would be his second book. This work was misunderstood by the common readers, not by the critic John Neal, who praised it.

"He will be the very first in the ranks of the true poets," Neal said, this being one of his first major incentives. In 1830 he enrolled as a cadet, although it did not last 8 months. In January of the following year, he was expelled for disobedience when he refused to follow the orders imposed on him.

Liberation of the militia

Free from military ties and having definitively broken ties with John Allan, Poe traveled to New York. There he edited his third book which he called Poems. He was able to print the copies thanks to $ 150 donated by his West Point cadet friends. Each soldier donated 0.75 dollars.

Poe rewarded the help of his friends by dedicating the book to them. Contrary to what the cadets thought, the book instead of containing satirical poems, like the ones he used to in the academy, had romantic poems.

In March he returned to Baltimore with his family. His brother Henry was convalescing from alcohol abuse. Due to the harsh economic reality they lived in, and because of Poe's desire to make a living from letters, he had to migrate from poetry to short stories, as it was a more commercial genre.

Poverty, deaths and a clandestine marriage

The following four years were of extreme poverty, even having food shortages, according to the testimonies of those close to the poet. He wrote letters to his stepfather in 1834 requesting help, without receiving a response. He died in that year without leaving him an inheritance. Also, his health complicated, his brother died.

He decided to secretly marry his cousin Virginia. She was only 13 years old, but the document said she was 21. Lying was common for the poet. According to his scholars the marriage was not consummated, because Poe was powerless. He was looking in Virginia for his sister, his mother, his friend.

With the death of his former benefactor and that of his brother, he had to focus more on producing with letters to support his family. In that year of deaths and clandestine marriages, Poe was able to see a little light in the dark. Thanks to his work Manuscript found in the bottle, he got a job.

John P. Kennedy, a wealthy man from Virginia, read the letter and recommended Poe to Thomas W. White, who was the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger newspaper in Richmond. Edgar was hired as a copywriter in August, but was later fired because he was found drunk several times.

Again a breath

Poe went briefly to Baltimore in search of his aunt and his wife and returned to Richmond. Back in town, he pleaded with White and was returned to office, on the condition that the poet would improve his behavior. He worked on Messenger until 1837.

Thanks to Poe's avid pen, the newspaper went from selling 700 copies to thousands. People were shocked by the writing of the writer. There he published stories, essays, poems and criticisms. The poet decided to retire from this newspaper, according to some biographers, for being very brilliant for such a poor position.

That year he went with the whole family to New York. While there he tried to bring to light Tales of the Folio Club, but he couldn't. The work was considered not very salable. It was recommended to do something more striking to the general public.

Thanks to that advice Poe wrote The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, a novel, his fourth book. He published it in 1838 and despite the efforts of the writer, the work did not have a good reception and he did not gain much from it.

The situation in New York became precarious, Poe and his family had to move in June 1838 to Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). While there they were secluded in a pension with very limited resources. The writer, in order to survive, had to do everything, even collaborate with works that were not of his branch.

In 1839 he breathed a little financially by becoming editor-in-chief of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, a popular magazine of the time. Then he managed to enter the newspaper Graham's Magazine, managing, as always, to multiply the newspaper's sales. Poe's fame continued to increase as did his monetary income.

Thanks to the economic tranquility that he had in this period of his life, the writer developed the detective novel. This branch includes such relevant texts as The Golden Beetle and The Crimes of the Morgue Street.

Virginia disease

The year 1842 came to Poe's life with dire news. One afternoon in January, during a meeting between friends, Virginia coughed up blood while playing the harp. The writer, unfortunately, knew those symptoms: it was tuberculosis.

From that day on, what little stability they had achieved began to collapse. Poe turned to opiates to calm anxiety. He had to leave Graham's because of problems with George Rex Graham, the editor. From there it all came in decline.

They returned to New York where Poe wrote for a time for the Evening Mirror, he also became editor of the Broadway Journal, which later became his. In that position as editor, for his talents and for not keeping the truths, he made many enemies.

The raven and the fame

"The Raven", Poe's top poem. Source: pixabay.com

In 1845, on January 29, he published his most famous work: The Raven. It is a poem about a talking bird that was inspired by Barnaby Rudge, a novel by Charles Dickens. He published it in the Evening Mirror.

It is currently considered the most iconic poem in American culture. The irony is that the only thing that Poe gained with his poem was fame and notoriety, he couldn't eat much of it. His only royal royalty for the writing was $ 9.

Virginia death and other misadventures

In 1846 The Broadway had to close, its production was scarce. Poe found himself between a rock and a hard place again. He had to move with his family to a cottage in the borough of the Bronx, in the area known as Fordham. Virginia died there early the following year, on January 30.

Due to the death of his wife, Poe entered a self-destructive stage. In 1848 he tried to commit suicide with opium, but failed.

Reappearance of love and arrival of death

Life gave him a kind of new light when he met his first love, Sarah Elmira Royster, in the middle of 1849. She convinced him to give up the vices, he agreed and they agreed to marry on the 17th of that same year.

The marriage could not be finalized because Poe was found on October 3 of that year totally delirious. She had clothes that were not her and she kept yelling incoherently. His friend James Snodgrass came to his rescue and took him to Washington College Hospital, where he died on October 7, a Sunday morning.

Among the causes of death they say it was brain inflammation. The truth is that many suggest that it was a very deep intoxication that intoxicated him and led to a delirium tremens, which struck him down in a few days.

His last sentence was "May God help my poor soul!" The truth is that, despite his eventful life, his work is today a world reference in literature and his legacy remains beyond his departure.

Plays

Poems

- "Tamerlane" (1827).

- «A…» (1827).

- "Dreams" (1827).

- "Spirits of the dead" (1827).

- "Evening star" (1827).

- "A dream" (1827).

- "The happiest day, the happiest hour" (1827).

- «The lake: A…» (1827).

- "Al Aaraaf" (1829).

- "Sonnet to Science" (1829).

- «Solo» (1829).

- «To Elena» (1831).

- "The city in the sea" (1831).

- "The sleeper" (1831).

- "The valley of restlessness" (1831).

- "Israfel" (1831).

- "The Coliseum" (1833).

- "To someone in paradise" (1834).

- "Hymn" (1835).

- "Sonnet to Zante" (1837).

- «Nuptial ballad to…» (1837).

- "The enchanted palace" (1839).

- "Sonnet of silence" (1840).

- «Lenore» (1843).

- "Land of dreams" (1844).

- "The Raven" (1845).

- "Eulalie, a song" (1845).

- «Ulalume» (1847).

- "A dream in a dream" (1849).

- "Annabel Lee" (1849).

- "The bells" (1849)

Stories

- "Metzengerstein" (1832).

- "Manuscript found in a bottle" (1833).

- "The Plague King" (1835).

- "Berenice" (1835).

- «Ligeia» (1838).

- "The fall of the House of Usher" (1839).

- "William Wilson" (1839).

- "The man in the crowd" (1840).

- "A descent to the Maelström" (1841).

- "The crimes of the Morgue Street" (1841).

- "The Mask of the Red Death" (1842).

- "The well and the pendulum" (1842).

- "The oval portrait" (1842).

- "The gold beetle" (1843).

- "The mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1843).

- "The black cat" (1843).

- "The tell-tale heart" (1843).

- "The oblong box" (1844).

- "The stolen letter" (1844).

- "The premature burial" (1844).

- "The demon of perversity" (1845).

- "The truth about the case of Mr. Valdemar" (1845).

- "The system of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845).

- "The barrel of amontillado" (1846).

- "Hop-Frog" (1849).

- "The Glasses" (1844).

- "To my mother" (1849).

Novel

- The narration of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838).

Reviews and essays

- "Charles Dickens."

- 'Longfellow'.

- 'Hawthorne'.

- «Cryptography».

- 'Stone Arabia'.

- "Philosophy of composition" (1846).

- "The poetic principle" (1848).

- Eureka (1848).

References

1. Edgar A. Poe, his life and works. (2003). Argentina: Editorial del cardo. Recovered from: Bibliotecavirtual.org.ar
2. Edgar Allan Poe, short biography. (S. f.). (N / a): Alba learning. Recovered from: albalearning.com
3. Edgar Allan Poe. (S. f.). (N / a): Biographies and lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com
4. Edgar Allan Poe, biography, characteristics, books and much more. (S. f.). (N / a): Historical figures. Recovered from: charactershistoricos.com
5. Edgar Allan Poe. (S. f.). (N / a): Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org