Madness of Edgar Allan Poe

Poe was born in Boston on 1809. He had a brother who died and a sister Rosalie who taught at penmanship at Richmond girls’ high school. Poe‘s parents died when he was aged three and was taken in by John Allan and his wife . Mr. Allan would raise Poe to be a successful business man but Poe had other dreams of becoming a writer just like his role model British poet Lord Byron, and at thirteen years of age he had written enough poetry for publishing but his headmaster suggested to his father not to allow this.

Poe joined the University of Virginia, Allan sent Poe to university with less money making him to gamble with an aim of raising money for his expenses he was extremely poor and burned his furniture for warmth. Poe was humiliated and returned home and visited his fiancée Elmira. He was shocked to find out that she was engaged to another man Poe was heartbroken and was increasingly hostile to Allan till he moved out of his rich home with an purpose of becoming a great poet. He successfully published his first poetic book and named it “Tamerlane” at eighteen and joined US army.

Two years passed he heard that Allan’s wife Frances was slowly dying of TB and would like to see him before her death. At the time of Poe’s arrival she was already buried. Allan and Poe successfully reconciled and helped him get an appointment at the military academy.

While at the military, Allan remarried without inviting or even telling Poe. This offended Poe, eight months later Poe was kicked out of the military. Now broke and lonely, Poe returned to Baltimore to look for his father’s relatives. It while at Baltimore Allan died, Poe later continued to publish short stories luckily one won a contest and got a chance to gain an editorial position in a local newspaper Allen, Hervey. With his skill Poe made the magazine popular through his stories and created a reputation as a critic. At twenty seven, Poe brought his aunt and daughter Virginia to Richmond who was aged thirteen and got married to her.

Poe relocated to Newyork for greener pastures. He published “the raven” which made him famous. He later lived in a tiny cottage following bad rumors of him and his family. Poe’s wife died aged twenty four, he was demoralized and this made him not to write for months. He began travelling giving lectures from one city to another. It is in Richmond he found Elmira who was now a widow and they courted. While leaving for Philadelphia they were engaged, Poe later disappeared for five days and was found in a bar room. He was taken to hospital, neither his fiancée nor relatives new Poe was in hospital until his mysterious death on 1849.

It is only days after his death that his rivals Griswold wrote a rebellious article in an attempt to revenge. Poe was portrayed as a drunkard womanizer with no friends with an aim of tarnishing his name but instead drove Poe’s book sales higher than ever as compared to when he was alive. This made him a legend of poetry and Griswold was remembered as the first biographer of Poe.