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Edgar Allan Poe's Sad Life

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Submitted By jjones1995
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Jackson State Community College
By
Jordan Jones

Professor Powell Franklin
English Comp II-1020
3 December 2015
Edgar Allan Poe's Sad Life

Born on the January 19, 1809, in Boston Massachusetts. His mother, Elizabeth and father, David weren’t the picture perfect parents to their child. Poe never really knew much of his parents. His mother passed away when Poe was only three years old on December 8, 1811, and his father left before that. It is said that Poe’s father deserted them, and his mother fell badly ill. He then lived with a man named John and his wife Frances Allan. John was a very successful tobacco merchant, they lived in Richmond, Virginia. Poe and Frances had a wonderful bond from the start, unfortunately that wasn’t the case with him and John. At the age of six, Poe then attended a trip to London with the Allan’s. There at London Poe endured his first education at the boarding schools in Chelsea and in Stoke Newington. That was a very lonely and unhappy time for Poe. While in London, John`s tobacco market fell, and Poe, John, and Frances returned to America. Poe moved several times before he became a teenager. He loved literature and writing, and he showed that in his education academy that he attended. Not many people know this, but Poe was fairly athletic. He was a boxer, leaper, and even a swimmer. One hot summer, June day her swam six miles in the James River. February 1826, Poe went to the University of Virginia, were he learned Latin and French and of course excelled in both. While in Richmond, Virginia he became engaged to Elmira Royster. Elmira’s father disagreed with them getting together and interrupted all of Poe’s letters that he wrote to her, Poe was left waiting for a reply. Edgar Allan Poe lived only forty years. He made an eternal place in the American literature world.
Money was always an issue between Poe and Allan, especially when he went to the University of Virginia. When going to the University, Allan didn’t send enough money to cover Poe’s schooling costs. Therefore Poe went to gambling as a way to help and to cover the difference. In the end you know what happened, he ended up in debt. After he returned home to start new beginnings he was only face with more setbacks. His fiancée Elmira Royster and his own neighbor had become engaged to someone else. That was the breaking point for Poe and then he left the Allan’s house. Poe having the rough life that he had started to focus more and more on his writing. After moving out of the Allan’s he search for a chance to pursue his writing full time. While in the search he lived in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. He lived in many different places in a short period of time.
He went the next four years living in Baltimore with his aunt, Maria Clemm.
Poe joined the army around the time that he published his first book called, Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827. He so desperately wanted to go to the military academy, called West Point. Finally he won a spot there in 1830, and excelled in his studies that he was taking there. Eventually he was kicked out for his poor handling of his responsibilities. After being kicked out Poe had feelings for his cousin named Virginia, she became a literary inspiration to Poe. In 1834 Poe's foster father died. Poe hoped that he would receive some of his fortune, unfortunately he did not. This was a time were Poe turned from writing poetry to writing stories. He fell in love with Virginia and they finally married in 1836, when she was only the age 13.
In 1839 Poe continues to write and in May of this year, he finally got hired as a co-editor at Burton`s Gentlemen's Magazine. He worked there for a year, in that year he published some of his greatest fiction some of them being "The Fall of the House of usher" and "William Wilson." Poe lost his job in 1841 to due to drinking this was unfortunate because of his Tales of the Grotesque that had been published many months prior that was not selling well. Poe and his wife Virginia found themselves in poverty, but thanks to Poe's former employer he recommended that Poe talk to the publisher of Graham's, and once again Poe found work as a editor.
Poe's family left Philadelphia and headed to New York in the spring of 1844. They first settled on a large farm on the outskirts of town. Poe started working for the New York Evening Mirror making only 15 dollars per week as the "mechanical paragraphist." This job consisted of composing anomious fillers, but ironically the Mirror gave him a new level of fame. In January of 1845 the Mirror published one of Poe's most famous poems. Poe's poem The Raven was a unforgettable story of the loss of a beloved woman. The story was reprinted several times after its first appearance.
At the beginning of 1845 Poe's family moved into the main city where he assisted a new weekly, the Broadway Journal. This new job was closer his dream of publishing his own magazine, it gave him a financial stability in the Journal its self. Poe left New York around March 1846, due to wanting to find a better environment for Sissy, who is now been attacked by coughing fits. They relocated to a cottage in a village of Fordham about 13 miles from New York City. In the beginning of 1847 Virginia passed away of a painful death of tuberculosis. Poe's depression was found in "Ulalume," perhaps one of the best poems that Poe ever wrote.
In 1848 it was a hot summer, Poe was trying to forget about his recent loss by remarrying. Although Poe was remarried he was seriously involved with three women at the same time. During a visit to Massachusetts in July 1848 Poe fell in love with Nancy Richmond, the wife of a paper manufacturer, and the mother of a young girl. He considered proposing marriage, but while in Richmond he received a sensual poem from a third woman named, Sara Helen Whitman of Rhode Island. He immediately went back to New York intending to meet the writer of the poem in person.
Poe arrived at her home in the fall of 1848, and found her to be a light skinned, blue eyed, widow. He then went back to Helen and his four days there he proposed marriage. Helen said she needed more time to decide, Poe was depressed by this response by her, and developed his relation to Nancy Richmond. While visiting Nancy he received a letter from Helen which made Poe's depression even worse. Poe boarded a train to Boston with two ounces of laudanum, and took half of the drug. This suicide attempt made him very very sick but did not kill him. Helen offered to marry as long as he would stay sober. On the day of their marriage he came in tipsy and it was all downhill from there. He worked more on his career and set back to go to Richmond with keeping in mind that he might be able to marry Elmira Royster. He found Elmira and proposed marriage to impress her. He left Richmond in September on the 27th just to return to get married in a week.
No one knows what happened to Poe over the week, but on the third of October he was seen at a Baltimore bar wearing dingy trousers and a wrinkle shirt. He was only half conscious, he was then sent to the hospital of Washington Medical College. According to Dr. John Moran he became delirious and began talking to objects. He died at three o'clock in the morning on Sunday by lethal amounts of alcohol.

Works Cited
"16 Little Known Facts About Edgar Allan Poe." Phactual. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
"25 Little Known Facts About Edgar Allan Poe; The Master Of Horror." List25. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
"American National Biography Online: Poe, Edgar Allan." N.p., Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
"Edgar Allan Poe - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
"Edgar Allan Poe Biography." CliffsNotes Study Guides | Book Summaries, Test Preparation & Homework Help | Written by Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
"Edgar Allan Poe." Bio. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.

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