How Did Poe's Life Affect His Writing

Edgar Allan Poe wrote many famous suspenseful short stories and poems like The Tell Tale Heart,The Raven and the Black Cat. Poe’s tragic life affected his writing in a variety of ways. He had a life filled with constant depression and sadness. Events in his life that affected his writing were his family and loved ones, alcoholism, and poverty. First of all, Poe’s family impacted some of his writing. For example, The Raven, Alone, and Annabel Lee were all stories and poems that related to his family and loved ones. All of those stories depicted his life. To begin with, in Edgar’s early years he was abandoned by his two fathers, David Poe Jr. and his foster father John Allan. In addition, his mother died of tuberculosis and his foster mother Frances Allan died of brain cancer. A while later Virginia, Edgar’s wife also died from tuberculosis. The loss of his wife deeply impacted him. The second main impact on his writing was his alcoholism. When Poe was 20 he began to excessively drink which then led to losing many jobs. Furthermore, he became extremely depressed which explains the death and darkness to his stories. By Edgar’s middle years he was an alcoholic and ruined many jobs. The Black Cat and the Cask of Amontillado were stories that relates to his alcoholism. The Black Cat

Poe was always very poor throughout his entire life. When he moved out of his foster father's house he had very little money because John Allan didn’t support him. When Edgar sold his first book he only earned fourteen dollars which clearly was not enough money to make a living. Poe wasn’t a very popular author and struggled to support himself and his wife Virginia. Also, he always struggled with keeping jobs or even getting them because people disliked him or he would be drunk. This part of his life influenced the story Eldorado. Eldorado was about a man that searched for money his whole life but died before he could find