Edgar Alan Poe Essay -- essays research papers

The Life Of Edgar Alan Poea Biography1809 -- 1849 He gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a cardinal stories as well as ofThe Raven and Other Poems, and he enjoyed a few months of calm as a respected criticand writer. After his married woman died in 1847, however, his life began to unravel even faster as hemoved about from city to city, lecturing and writing, drinking heavily, and courting several old women. Just before marrying one, he died in Baltimore after being foundsemiconscious in a tavern - possibly from too much alcohol, although it is a myth that hewas a habitual drunkard and drug addict. Admittedly a failure in approximately areas of his personal life, he was recognized as anunusually gifted writer and was admired by Dostoevsky and Baudelaire, even if not alwaysappreciated by many of his other contemporaries. Master of symbolism and the macabre,he is considered to be the father of the detective story and a stepfather of science fiction,and he remains one of the most timeless and extraordinary of all American yeasty artists. Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second ofthe three children of David Poe and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, both of whom wereprofessional actors and members of a touring theatrical company. Eclipsed by his morefamous wife, his own promising biography ruined by alcoholism, Poes father deserted thefamily when Edgar was still an infant nothing conclusive is known of his life thereafter.While appearing professionally in Richmond, Virginia, Poes stupefy became ill and died onDecember 8, 1811, at the age of twenty-four. Her three children, who wouldmaintain contact with one another throughout their lives, were sent to live with different nurture families. Edgar became the ward of John Allan, a successful tobacco merchant inRichmond, and his wife Frances, who had no children of their own. Although neverformally adopted by them, Poe regarded the couple, especially Mrs. Allan, as parents, an dhe took their surname as his own middle name. In 1815, business reasons led Allan tomove to England for what would be a five-year stay. Both in London and and then inRichmond after the familys return, Poe was well educated in private academies. In 1825,he became secretly engaged to... ...d, plunging Poe into an emotional and physicalcollapse that lasted for most of the year. In 1848, he was briefly engaged to marry SarahHelen Whitman, a widowed poet several years his senior, but their relationship was tenseand strained, and the engagement was broken off. He went to Richmond in the summer of1849, hoping to find financial backing for yet another journal, and while there he wasreunited with and re-engaged to Elmira Royster, his first love, now herself a widow. Hesailed from Richmond to Baltimore, where on October 3, 1849, he was found outside apolling place (it was election day), in a state of delirium and wearing shabby and ill-fittingclothing. He was taken to a nearby hospital, wh ere he raved feverishly for several daysbefore dying on October 7 at the age of forty. Neither the chance that had led to hiscondition nor the exact cause of his death have ever been satisfactorily determined. Poesposthumous reputation sustained grievous and long-lasting damage from a libelousbiography by Rufus Griswold, whom Poe himself had appointed his literary executor, andrumors, mostly unfounded, circulate to this day about Poes mental state and personalhabits.