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Edgar Allan 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 is born. Shortly after her birth, or possibly even before it, David Poe deserts the family, leaving Poe's mother alone with three children. Making matters worse, Elizabeth Poe soon falls ill with tuberculosis. -
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."31 -
Poe enlist in the U.S. Army and publishes his first book
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. All around them people were dying, for a cholera epidemic was devastating communities along the East Coast. -
Poe marries his 13 year old Cousin, Virginia Clemm
The two first met in 1829, when Clemm was seven years old. Her widowed mother Maria had then allowed the 20-year-old Poe, who had been orphaned in his youth and more recently discharged from the military, to stay with her family. Clemm adored Poe, following him on long walks in the countryside and even delivering his love letters to a neighbor — until, that is, his affections turned to her. It’s said that the pair attended strangers’ funerals, held each other and cried. -
Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
Published in 1838, it chronicled the progressively incredible adventures of the eponymous character, from a stowaway berth to the South Pole. Pym's picaresque adventures are marked by ludicrously dark violence and gruesome deaths. The novel's events become increasingly bizarre and fantastical, moving from adventure tale to proto-Cosmic Horror Story. -
Poe's story collection
Sometime after 1835, having failed to find a publisher, Poe abandoned his proposed Tales of the Folio Club, but not the idea of a collected edition of his prose fiction. This new collection of 25 stories became Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. By September of 1839, he had finally convinced a publisher to print this two-volume set. -
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
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 Allan Poe's death
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.
