Edgar Allan Poe Research Paper

Life of Edgar Allan Poe According to Biography.com Editors, he was known as the “Father of the Detective Story.” He became one of the most famous authors and poets in American history. He was born to soon-to-be-dead parents. He was adopted where he had a terrible relationship with his father. He was brilliant yet outcasted. He was Edgar Allan Poe. David Poe Jr. was born 1784 and died 1811, but that is not known for certain. He left his family 1809, the same year his second son, Edgar Poe, was born. He is said to have left to find work for the family. He was born to a father whom had fought in the Revolutionary War and had a comfortable amount of wealth accumulated. While his parents wanted him to pursue law to become a lawyer, David chose

Poe then received his middle name, “Allan”, from the adoptive family. Although he formed a bond with the mother, Frances, that luxury did not extend to the father, John (Biography.com Editors; Giordant; “Edgar”; “John”). John Allan was a successful tobacco farmer, which he desired to pass on to Poe. However, Poe did not want to partake in such a career. He was sent to the University of Virginia, where the minute quantity of currency sent to Poe for college was less than not enough. Poe’s moral code of paying all debts back caused him to feel backing into the corner of gambling, which only led to more debt (about two-thousand dollars). He dropped out of school and went home, despite excelling in all his classes (Biography.com Editors; Giordant; “Edgar”). He arrived home only to realize that his fiancée, Sarah Elmira Royster, was now engaged to another man. Distressed, Poe decided to move to Boston (Biography.com

He won a contest with his The Manuscript Found in a Bottle story. He then became the editor of the “Southern Literary Messenger” (“Edgar”). He very much helped the paper, increasing the copies printed sevenfold. In 1836, Poe and Virginia married. The same year, Poe left the paper due to what he called a bad pay (Giordano). Poe moved in 1838 and wrote Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, which was published in 1839. He got no money from it though. He then went to another magazine called “Graham’s magazine.” Although he again increased the magazine’s popularity sevenfold, he left in 1842 to start his own magazine, which ended up failing. Virginia had to help out with the money a lot. Poe received the prize of one-hundred dollars for winning a competition with his story The Gold Bug, but barely received enough money from it (Giordano). In 1847, Virginia died of Tuberculosis, leaving Poe a dark road to continue down. His struggle with depression and alcohol became more of a problem. He wrote some of his most famous works around this time: The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Raven