-
Edgar is Born
On this day in 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts. -
Poe's sister is born
Rosalie, sister of Edgar Allan Poe, is said to have been born in December of 1810, but we have no solid documentary evidence for this assertion. 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. -
Poe's Parents Death
Poe's natural parents, David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, both actors, were employed by Mr. Placide's Theatre Company in Boston. They had been married in Richmond while on tour here in 1806. On December 8, 1811, while again in Richmond, Elizabeth Arnold Poe died. The two children who were with her Edgar, not quite three, and Rosalie, only eleven months old, were taken in by Richmond families - Edgar by John and Frances Valentine Allan and Rosalie by William and Jane Scott MacKenzie. -
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
In 1827, Poe enlisted in the U.S. Army under the name "Edgar A. Perry." He did well as a soldier, rising to the rank of sergeant major. He also continued to write. A book of his poetry was published anonymously (the author being listed only as "A Bostonian"). -
Poe's older brother dies
— so I left W. Point abruptly," he later wrote, "and threw myself upon literature as a resource. I became first known to the literary world thus."7 Poe published several anonymous short stories plus another book of poems. Almost immediately after he left West Point, his brother Henry died of tuberculosis. -
Poe marries his thirteenth year old cousin
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (née Clemm; August 15, 1822 – January 30, 1847) 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. -
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
The story of an ill-fated sea voyage, Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, his only novel, has captured the attention of generations of readers with its action-packed plot, imaginative use of symbol and myth, depiction of cannibalism, and numerous unusual occurrences. Poe's subtle handling of irony and ambiguity, as well as his use of a self-conscious narrative technique, have made Pym, the object of much critical study. -
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes.
For example, the "grotesque" stories are those where the character becomes a caricature or satire, as in "The Man That Was Used Up". The "arabesque" stories focus on a single aspect of a character, often psychological, such as "The Fall of the House of Usher." [9] A distant relative of Poe, modern scholar Harry Lee Poe, wrote that "grotesque" means "horror", which is gory and often disgusting, and "arabesque" means "terror", which forsakes the blood and gore for the sake of frightening the reade -
Poe publishes the poem, The Raven.
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". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references. -
Poe's wife Virginia dies
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 Allan Poe's death
the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On October 3, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker.[1] He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died at 5 a.m. on Sunday, October 7. Poe was never coherent enough to explain how he came to be in this condition.
