Edgar Allan Poe

By monica.ceballos

  • Edgar Allam Poe is Born

    Edgar Poe is born in Boston to Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe, Jr., both traveling actors. The couple already has one son named Henry.

  • Poe's Sister is Born

    Poe's sister Rosalie Mackenzie Poe is born. Shortly after her birth, or possibly even before it, David Poe deserts the family, leaving Poe's mother alone with three children.

  • Poe's Parents Die.

    Elizabeth Arnold Poe dies of tuberculosis in Richmond, Virginia. Within days, David Poe also dies of tuberculosis. With no parents to take care of them, the three children of the family are split up. Henry goes to live with his paternal grandparents. A Richmond couple, John and Frances Allan, take in Edgar as a foster child. Rosalie is taken in by another Richmond family named Mackenzie. Both Edgar and Rosalie adopt their foster families' names as their middle names.

  • 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."

  • Poe enlists in the U.S. Army and shortly after his first book is published

    Poe enlists in the U.S. Army under the name "Edgar A. Perry." Shortly after, his first book—a poetry collection entitled Tamerlane and Other Poems—is published. The author is listed only as "A Bostonian."

  • Poe's older brother dies

    Edgar's older brother Henry dies of either tuberculosis or cholera at the age of 27.

  • Poe Marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm

    Poe—now 27 years old—marries his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, at a ceremony in Richmond, Virginia.

  • Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

    Poe's first novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, is published.The Narrative of Arthur Gordon is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe.

  • Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes

    Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is a collection of previously published short stories and it was published in two volumes.

  • Poe publishes the poem, The Raven

    Poe publishes the poem , The Raven in the New York Evening Mirror. It is wildly successful, bringing the writer the fame and fortune that have long eluded him. He soon becomes editor and owner of a magazine called the Broadway Journal, a doomed enterprise that is already in debt when Poe takes over.

  • Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx

    Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx. Poe has been so despondent during the final months of her illness that friends thought he was going insane. The loss of his wife sends Poe into a downward spiral of alcoholism.

  • 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.