Edgar Allan Poe Research Paper

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream (1).” Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. He had a very interesting childhood. After his parents died, just before Edgar was three, he moved in with the Allans. John Allan’s tobacco exporting company made him a rich man. Him and his wife were able to send Poe to the best boarding schools around. He then attended the University of Virginia, he was an excellent student and exceeded everyone’s expectations. Edgar had one major problem while in school though, gambling. John refused to pay Edgar’s debts and was obligated to drop out. This disagreement put a huge gap between the two men. At 18 years old, Edgar moved back to Boston and enlisted into the United

He really had no choice because Frances Allan had just died, and John was getting very sick. Edgar was no getting the financial support he needed, so he decided to move to Maryland. There, he started writing short stories and selling them to magazines. Four years later, the Southern Literary Messenger hired Edgar as the editor. This was huge for him and his career. The job was in Richmond, so the three family members packed up and moved there. After moving, Edgar became infatuated with his 14 year old cousin and decided to marry her. Over the next ten years, he created himself as an editor, short story writer, and poet. During this time, Poe wrote “The Raven”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. Edgar had been dealing with depression and alcoholism almost his entire life. After his wife, Virginia, died he almost went off the deep end. She had suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1847. Poe was going to leave Richmond and head back to Philadelphia, but ended up stopping in Baltimore. There, he was found almost completely dead. The man that found him had people come and get him. Just four days later, he died. The doctors claimed it was congestion of the brain. Years and years later, a couple medical doctors opened up the case again and say that he might have had rabies. His death was lonely and scary. No one really knows which way he died, everyone has their own

He is famous for his short, dark, and mysterious stories. He is not just any author, he is the model of Romanticism, and is one of the very few authors to depend solely off of his earnings from his stories. Many call him the grandfather of horror in American Literature. His stories had deep meaning and were very compelling. Almost all of Poe’s stories are written in first person. His most famous, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, was written in that same view and the narrator was almost deceitful. A lot of main characters are like that, this makes the reader think and try to figure out what is happening or what might happen. Most authors/books make the main character out to be the good guy, but Poe completely abandoned the maxim and went his own way. Schools should still be teaching him because of this particular reason. The school system should be teaching students to ignore the social norms of writing and be creative. There is nothing wrong with having a different ending, rather than having the good guy always win. Edgar started this, but not many have carried on to do it as well. This type of style needs to come back because it creates individualism, identity, and