On January 19, 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time he was three years old, his father had abandoned the family and his mother had died, leaving him in the care of his godfather John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant. After attending school in England, Poe entered the University of Virginia in 1826. After fighting with Allan over his heavy gambling debts, he was forced to leave school after only eight months. Poe <\/a>then served two years in the U.S. Army and won an appointment to West Point. After another falling out, Allan cut him off completely and he got himself dismissed from the academy for rules infractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dark, handsome and brooding, Poe had published three works of poetry by that time, none of which had received much attention. In 1836, while working as an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. He also completed his first full-length work of fiction, Arthur Gordon Pym, published in 1838.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poe lost his job at the Messenger due to his heavy drinking, and the couple moved to Philadelphia, where Poe worked as an editor at Burton\u2019s Gentleman\u2019s Magazine and Graham\u2019s Magazine. He became known for his direct and incisive criticism, as well as for dark horror stories like \u201cThe Fall of the House of Usher\u201d and \u201cThe Tell-Tale Heart.\u201d Also around this time, Poe began writing mystery stories, including \u201cThe Murders in the Rue Morgue\u201d and \u201cThe Purloined Letter\u201d\u2014works that would earn him a reputation as the father of the modern detective story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1844, the Poes moved to New York City. He scored a spectacular success the following year with his poem \u201cThe Raven.\u201d While Poe was working to launch The Broadway Journal\u2014which soon failed\u2014his wife Virginia fell ill and died of tuberculosis in early 1847. His wife\u2019s death drove Poe even deeper into alcoholism and drug abuse. After becoming involved with several women, Poe returned to Richmond in 1849 and got engaged to an old flame. Before the wedding, however, Poe died suddenly. Though circumstances are somewhat unclear, it appeared he began drinking at a party in Baltimore and disappeared, only to be found incoherent in a gutter three days later. Taken to the hospital, he died on October 7, 1849, at age 40.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On January 19, 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts. By the time he was three years old, his father had abandoned the family and his mother had died, leaving him in the care of his godfather John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant….<\/p>\n