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Edgar Allan Poe is Born.
The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. -
Poe’s Sister is born.
. All we know for certain is that she was born long enough after the disappearance of her mother Eliza's husband, David Poe, for questions to arise about the girl's paternity. It was even said in later years that David's sister, (and Edgar's mother-in-law) Maria Clemm, claimed that Rosalie was not the child of either Eliza or David Poe. -
Poe’s Parents Die
Elizabeth Poe died in 1811, when Edgar was 2 years old. She had separated from her husband and had taken her three kids with her. Henry went to live with his grandparents while Edgar was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan and Rosalie was taken in by another family. John Allan was a successful merchant, so Edgar grew up in good surroundings and went to good schools. -
1824 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.
dgar Allan had no money, no job skills, and had been shunned by John Allan. Edgar went to Boston and joined the U.S. Army in 1827. He was 18. He did reasonably well in the Army and attained the rank of sergeant major. In 1829, Mrs. Allan died and John Allan tried to be friendly towards Edgar and signed Edgar's application to West Point -
Poe’s older brother dies.
Henry Poe was an inspiration to his brother's life and writings and the two had similar writing styles. Edgar Allan Poe for a time used the alias "Henri Le Rennet", a name inspired by Henry. Henry's influence on Edgar's writing include a character in the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and possibly the name of the title character in the poem "Lenore". -
Poe marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm.
Poet Edgar Allen Poe wed his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm in 1835, ten years before finding instant success following the publication of "The Raven." -
1838 Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
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. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. -
1840 Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes.
Poe had been planning a book of tales for a number of years, constructed around the conceit of a literary club of fictional characters, to be called Tales of the Folio Club. The idea languished for want of a publisher until about September 1839. -
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. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". -
Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx.
was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. 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. In January 1842 she contracted tuberculosis, growing worse for five years until she died of the disease at the age of 24 in the family's cottage outside New York City. -
Edgar Allen Poe Dies.
After being found unconscious in a Baltimore gutter, Edgar Allan Poe is taken to the hospital and pronounced dead of causes still unknown. He is buried at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
