Biography

of

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 in Boston. His parents were struggling actors. When he was 2 years old his father abandoned his family and then his mother became sick of tuberculosis and died. Then Poe was sended to live with Francis Allan in Richmond where he attended the Manner House School and when he was 5 years old Allan's company moved to England. Then in 1820 Poe's family returned to Richmond and he felt in love with a neighbor called Elmira. They wanted to get married, but her father disapproved. Then Poe when to the University of Virginia and he and Elmira started to write to each other, but her father intercepted all the letters and soon Elmira thought that Poe didn't love her anymore and she got married to another man. Poe was heartbroken and he started writing stories about lost love, suspense and terror. One of his stories was "Fall of the House of Usher" and one poem "The Raven" which gave Poe a lot of fame. To write Poe used alcohol and a drug call opion, which he said helped him spark his mind, but made him act crazy. After his tragic experience with Elmira, Francis started criticizing Poe and then Poe got out of school and joined the army. But after a while he got out of the army and started writing and editing, but this editing only made him enemies because Poe wrote cruel reviews about writers criticizing their work and calling it worthless. Then Poe moved in with his ant Clemm, who he called "Muddy." Then when he was 27 years old he got married to his cousin Virginia. When Virginia was 20 she became ill and she die at the age of 24. To support him and Muddy Poe called Elmira who was a rich widow and got married to her. A week later, he died. He died when he was 40 in 1849 and when he died he was poor and he was almost unknown.