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Edgar Allan Poe was born on the 19th of January 1809 in Boston (Massachusetts) When he was 2 years old his father abandoned his family. -
When he was 2 years old his father abandoned his family.
A little bit later his mother died leaving Edgar, his brother and his sister orphans. -
Since he was a kid he loved spending time reading magazines, he started writing poems at the age of 14 years old. -
At the age of 17 he was already attending The University of Virginia but his father stopped sending him money. He started drinking and became an alcohol addict and he had to leave the college. -
Without money and without a job he decided to enter (to enlist) the US Army in 1827. He was 18 years old. -
In the same year he published his first book: “TAMERLANE AND OTHER POEMS” by a Bostonian because his father didn’t want him to write and to become a writer and he didn’t want to be discovered.
This book was full of verses Edgar wrote when he was a kid. In the meanwhile Allen, his step mother fell ill and by the time Edgar reached home, his mother died. The loss was very painful for Edgar. -
His stepfather John Allen at this point decided to make up with his son and got him in a place to continue his studies in the Military Academy at West Point in 1830.
In the same year his father married again. Edgar started fighting constantly until his father cut off all the contacts with him. -
In 1834 his father died without including him in his will.
Edgar was furious but he kept fighting to survive and in 1835 (he was 26 years old) he got a job as an editor for the art and literature magazine SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER in Richmond. There Edgar built his reputation as a fierce critic. -
When he was 27 the poet married his cousin Virginia and he was only 13 years old.
In 1840 Edgar joined George R. Graham at the Graham’s magazine. -
In 1845 he published his first great horror story “THE RAVEN”a masterpiece in American literature. -
In 1847 when he was only 24 the same age of her biological mother and older brother when they died, his wife died of tuberculosis. -
In the end he died on October 7th 1849 maybe because of brain congestion or his alcoholism but his death still remains a great mystery since the death certificate never appeared.