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Edgar Allan Poe is Born
January 19, 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. -
Poe's sister is born
Rosalie, sister of Edgar Allan Poe, was born in December of 1810, but we have no solid documentary evidence for this assertion. -
Poe's Parents Die
On 8 December 1811, Elizabeth Poe died of tuberculosis in Richmond, Virginia. News soon arrived that David Poe had also died of the same disease, within days of his estranged wife. -
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 borther dies
Edgar's older brother Henry dies of either tuberculosis or cholera at the age of 27. -
poe writes first novel
Poe's first novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, is published. -
Poe gets married
Poe—now 27 years old—marries his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, at a ceremony in Richmond, Virginia. -
Poe's story collection is published
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes. -
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. -
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 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.
