, Research Paper
Edgar Allen Poe and His LifeStory
Edgar Allen Poe was a very famous poet and writer,Poe created many poems and
stories such as The Raven, The Tall -Tale Heart, The Fall of The House of Usher
and many more. (tompson 1)Edgar lived from 1809 to 1849. He was born on January
19,1809, in Boston Massachusetts but grew up in Richmond Virgina but through his
many travels he lived in half a dozen eastern cities. He lived a short and
tragic life. His first career was to study in law but soon went against his
family and started a career in acting. His critic reviews were poor. Many
critics thought his technique was bad.Edgars father was an actor by the name of
David Poe and his mother also an actress by the name of Elizabeth.edgar was the
second of three children, about the time that the third child was born Edgar?s
father died. After his father had died Edgars mother and her two yougest
children went to Richmond, his brother William already had been settled with
relatives in Baltimore. Poe?s mother was in the lastest stages of her diesease,
struggling with two kids, she died. Edgar and , an infant, Rosalie, were
orphaned. Poe finally was hit with the reliazation of his parents death.In
1811on a visit of generousity, Mrs. Francis Allen learned of the situation of
the Poe babies. Mrs. Allen had no babies of her own and to that she took home
handsome little Edgar. Mr. John Allen didn?t aprove of a permant adoption but
he began to in time support the child, and became proud of his good looks and
intelligence.When Edgar was six years old Mr. Allens bussiness took them to
Scotland, they lived there for about five years. Edgar persued his education at
the Irvin Grammer School in Irvin, Scotland.After many journeys throughtout his
childhood Edgar and the Allens returned to Richmond, Virgina.There at the age of
11 Mr. Allen enrolled Edgar into the English and Classical School attended by
sons of the more fashionable families of Richmond.There Edgar began to feel the
difference between himself and the others at this school.To this Edgar the sense
of injury made its self evident at home with fits of temper and rebellion for
which there seemed to the family , no justification. Mr. Allen did not put up
with such behavior , Mr.Allen repeatedly reminded Edgar about his
"disreputable" parentage.In Edgar?s college years his growing
antagonism between father and son, Mr.
Allen was willing to send Edgar to the University of Virgina. Edgar had gone
to the university to in fact get away from the Allen house hold. This
indescribable social college campus set Edgar in for a major turn around , Edgar
began to gamble to where he couldn?t pay off debts he incountered, when Edgar
drank is sent him into a wild statof excitement.
Edagr was then pulled out of the University for such behavior. Mr.Allen then
out him in a low, routine job at hjis counting house. This was very humiliating
for Edgar and he just couldn?t bear it anymore , the answer, to leave home.He
left to Boston where he
manage to publish a collection of his poems, desperate for money, he then
joined the army under the name of Edgar A. Perry. Army barracks were no place
for this young noblemen.Poe turned to his foster father for reconciliation,
Mr.Allens then purchased Edgar out of the army, which was possible at that time.
Shortly after he publisheds
another set of his writings. Little more then a year after Poe decided
consider a military career, he gained admission to the United States Military
Academy at West Point , New York.
Edgar was of two minds about the Academy: an army career was suitable for a
Virginia gentleman he longed to be, but the discipline was uncongenial. The
second mind won, and Edgar deliberately provoked expulsion by cutting all drills
and classes. This was it for Mr. Allen. Mrs. Allen death removed Edgars friend
in the house.Edgars love life began with a woman named Sarah Elmira Royster,
they got engaged but never got married because sarahs dad disapproved of the
marriage . Edgar
went to Charlottesville but said he would write to her everyday. Her father
intercepted
every letter he wrote her and everyday since sarah never got the letters of
course she
never wrote back and everyday that Edgar never got a letter from her he got
more and
more depressed. John Allen broke off the engagement . (tompson5)
In the two years after his final rupture with Mr. Allan, Poe lived for a
considerable
time in Baltimore with his aunt, Mrs. Maria (Poe) Clemm. She was a poor
seamstress,
but she welcomed Poe into her home and took care of him. Outwardly, it was a
do-nothing period for him, but inwardly it was significant. He wrote a group
of
unpublished short stories. Even more importantly, he began to dramatize
himself as one
whom "unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster". He
probably had an
inherited emotional instability which fed his feeling of persecution.
Once established in his job, he brought Mrs. Clemm and her daughter,
Virginia, to
live with him. A little later he married his cousin, Virginia, who was some
years younger
than he. From that time on, the three formed a household.Throughout all his
vicissitudes,
the two women, his wife, Virginia, and her mother were unfailingly devoted to
him. Much
of the time, Mrs. Clemm kept boarders to make a home for Poe and Virginia.
Mrs. Clemm
found no fault in him; at his worst, to her he was "poor Eddie".
Her motherliness cradled
all his weaknesses and eccentricities. (He called her "Muddie.") In
her way, Virginia was equally devoted.
She was sweet and gentle, but rather simple-minded. She could not follow the
wild flights
of Poe’s erratic genius, but she gave him an adoring, unquestioned admiration
which
was incense to his spirit. She found a childish pleasure and absorption
clipping and
pasting the long scrolls on which he wrote.
Poe, in turn, showed his best self to them. Here, where there was no will
beside
his own, where two loyal satellites revolved about the central sun of his
ego, he was at
his best and gentlest. He was affectionate toward Mrs. Clemm and increasingly
tender
and loving to Virginia, an invalid who was slowly dying of tuberculosis.
The pathetic little family made its last move to a tiny cottage in Fordham,
then a
village about thirteen miles from New York. Mrs. Clemm set about making the
place
habitable, setting aside the best room of four as "dear Eddie’s"
study. They managed
through the summer, but as autumn came on, there was not even fuel to warm
the house.
Virginia grew steadily worse. Poe sank deeper into melancholia. In the depth
of winter,
Virginia died.
With the loss of his wife, Poe’s last hold on reality vanished. He worked
feverishly at writing a book, Eureka, which he believed would be an
expression of
profound truth. It was more nearly a curious hodge-podge of unproven
scientific
statement and wild imagining, springing from his disturbed state. He wandered
from one
city to another, drifted back to Richmond and on to Baltimore, where he
died.(Internet)
Microsoft Encarta 98 encyclopedia (c) 1993-1997 microsoft
corproation
Encyclopedia volume 18, (c) 1975-Field Enterprises
Educational Corporation
Internet- www.intelinet.org-Havana, Z?rich, New York, San
Francisco, New Orleans, Hot Springs, Oakland,
1973-1998.