EAF Authors -- Edgar Allan Poe

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Edgar Allan Poe

(1809-1849) Born in Boston to parents who were actors, Poe was adopted by the Allans of Virginia. From February to December of 1826, Poe attended the University of Virginia, where he distinguished himself as a student but accrued heavy gambling debts that forced his departure. After venturing to Boston, Poe published a slim volume of poems entitled Tamerlane, but did not meet with instant literary success. In 1827, Poe's impoverished circumstances led him to enlist in the United States Army as "Edgar A. Perry," where he served for two years. In 1829, Poe's foster father John Allan purchased his release from the army and aided him in securing an appointment to West Point. But Poe was unhappy at West Point; after unsucessfully begging Allan to authorize him to leave the Academy, Poe managed to get himself expelled by skipping drills and classes. He moved to New York and published his Poems, then proceeded to Baltimore, where he started writing stories and won a literary contest sponsored by the Baltimore Visiter. In 1835 Poe moved to Richmond to be editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, where he published a number of critical essays, stories, and poems. Around this time Poe married his thirteen year-old cousin Virginia Clem. After being fired from his job, apparently for drinking, Poe returned to New York, where he composed The Narative of Arthur Gordon Pym. In 1839, Poe took a position as co-editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and wrote several of his most famous stories, including "William Wilson" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." In 1840 he published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. He continued to write and do editorial work for a number of magazines, including New York Mirror and Godey's Lady's Book. Poe gained national attention when his poem "The Raven" was printed in New York Mirror in 1845. During the same year Poe published The Raven and Other Poems and Tales. Following his wife Virginia's death in 1847, Poe briefly became engaged to the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, then to Elmira Royster. On October 7, 1849, Poe died in rather mysterious circumstances after falling into a fit in the streets of Baltimore on Election Day. He was buried in the yard of Baltimore's Wesminster Presbyterian Church.

A Brief Biography
from the Poe Museum, Richmond

Nineteenth-Century Biographies:

From Oscar Fay Adams, A Dictionary of American Authors (1901)

From Samuel Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1900)

From Evert A. Duyckinck, Cyclopaedia of American Literature (1856)

Guides to Manuscript Holdings at the University of Virginia:

A Guide to the Ingram-Poe Collection 38-135 [the main collection, ca. 1000 items]
A Guide to the Ingram-Poe Collection 38-135-f [five sheets of galleys for "Recollections of Swinburne," by John Henry Ingram]
A Guide to the Ingram-Poe Collection 38-135-g [four items, 1902, 1930, and 1933, relating to Edgar Allan Poe]