Edgar Allan Poe

Their grandfather, David Poe, had emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland, around 1750.

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, author, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.

He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of American literature.

Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Poe was born in Boston, the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe.

Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second child of American actor David Poe Jr. and English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe.

He had an elder brother, Henry, and a younger sister, Rosalie.

His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when his mother died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia.

They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young adulthood.

He attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack of money.

He quarreled with John Allan over the funds for his education, and his gambling debts.

His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died a year later from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Poe was then taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant in Richmond, Virginia, who dealt in a variety of goods, including cloth, wheat, tombstones, tobacco, and slaves.

The Allans served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", although they never formally adopted him.

The Allan family had Poe baptized into the Episcopal Church in 1812.

John Allan alternately spoiled and aggressively disciplined his foster son.

The family sailed to the United Kingdom in 1815, and Poe attended the grammar school for a short period in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, where Allan was born, before rejoining the family in London in 1816.

There he studied at a boarding school in Chelsea until summer 1817.

He was subsequently entered at the Reverend John Bransby's Manor House School at Stoke Newington, then a suburb 4 mi north of London.

Poe moved with the Allans back to Richmond in 1820.

In 1824, he served as the lieutenant of the Richmond youth honor guard as the city celebrated the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette.

In March 1825, Allan's uncle and business benefactor William Galt died, who was said to be one of the wealthiest men in Richmond, leaving Allan several acres of real estate.

The inheritance was estimated at $750,000.

By summer 1825, Allan celebrated his expansive wealth by purchasing a two-story brick house called Moldavia.

Poe may have become engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster before he registered at the University of Virginia in February 1826 to study ancient and modern languages.

In 1827, having enlisted in the United States Army under an assumed name, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, credited only to "a Bostonian".

Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife in 1829.

Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declared a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and parted ways with Allan.

Poe switched his focus to prose, and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism.

His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City.

In 1836, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, but she died of tuberculosis in 1847.

In January 1845, he published his poem "The Raven" to instant success.

He planned for years to produce his own journal The Penn, later renamed The Stylus.

But before it began publishing, Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances.

The cause of his death remains unknown, and has been variously attributed to many causes including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.

Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography.

He and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television.

A number of his homes are dedicated museums.

The Mystery Writers of America present an annual Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.