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Edgar Allan Poe was born.
Edgar Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. -
Poe's sister was born.
Edgar Allan Poe's sister Rosalie was born in December 1810, but there is no solid documentary evidence for this claim. All we know is that she was born long enough after the mysterious disappearance of her mother Eliza's husband, David Poe, for questions to arise about the child's paternity. -
Poe's parents die.
Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Poe's parents died of tuberculosis. -
Poe writes his first poem.
A fifteen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe pens his first known poem: "Last night, with many cares & toils oppres'd,/ Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest."31 -
Poe enlists in the U.S. Army and shortly after his first book is published.
He enlisted in the Army on May 26, 1827, under the alias of Edgar A. Perry, He first served at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor and was later moved to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina, and then Fort Monroe, Virginia, usually earning around $5 a month. Eighteen-year-old Poe moved to Boston three months later and quickly arranged the publication of his first book, a collection of poems under the title Tamerlane. Calvin F. S. Thomas published the book. -
Poe's older brother dies
Henry, who was a heavy drinker and may have been an alcoholic, died of tuberculosis on August 1, 1831, in Baltimore, likely in the same room or even the same bed which he shared with his brother Edgar. He was twenty-four. -
Poe marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm.
The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27. Some biographers have suggested that the couple's relationship was more like that between brother and sister than like husband and wife in that they may have never consummated their marriage. -
Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus. -
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes
It was published by the Philadelphia firm Lea & Blanchard and released in two volumes. The collection was dedicated to Colonel William Drayton, whom Poe likely met while stationed in Charleston, South Carolina. -
Poe publishes the poem, The Raven.
First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,[1][2] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. -
Poe's wife, Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx.
The disease and eventual death of his wife had a substantial effect on Edgar Allan Poe, who became despondent and turned to alcohol to cope. Her struggles with illness and death are believed to have affected his poetry and prose, where dying young women appear as a frequent motif. -
Edgar Allan Poe dies.
The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On October 3, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker.
