Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe: The best writer ever 

Edgar Poe was born on 19 January 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts; he was the son of the actors Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe. He had a brother named William Henry and a sister Rosalie. He was orphaned at the age of two. After the death of his parents Edgar was taken in by Frances and John Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Virginia. This and many other factors that affected his intellectual development had an important impact in his personality.

During his youth, he began writing poems. His greatest influence was Lord Byron, however he read everything he could. Poe traveled with the Allans to England in 1815 and attended school in Chelsea. In 1820 he was back in Richmond where he attended the University of Virginia and studied Latin and poetry and also loved to swim and act. While he was in school, he became estranged from his stepfather after accumulating gambling debts. Unable to pay them or support himself, Poe left school and enlisted in the United States Army where he served for two years. He had been writing poetry for some time and in 1827 his first book Tamerlane and Other Poems was published, at his own expense.

Poe enlisted in the West Point Military Academy but he was dismissed a year later. In 1829 his second book Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems was published. The same year, he moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt Maria Clemm, mother of Virginia Eliza Clemm who would become his wife at the age of thirteen.

In 1835 he became editor and contributor of the Southern Literary Messenger. Though, not without his detractors and troubles with employers, it was the start of his career as respected critic and essayist. Other publications which he contributed to, were: Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine (1839–1840), Graham’s Magazine (1841–1842), Evening Mirror, and Godey’s Lady’s Book.

After Virginia and Edgar married in Richmond in 1836 they moved to New York City. The only completed novel of Poe: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was published in 1838.

Living in their last place of residence, a cottage in the Fordham section of the Bronx in New York City, Virginia died in 1847. Poe turned to alcohol more frequently and was purportedly displaying increasingly erratic behavior. A year later he became engaged to his teenage sweetheart from Richmond, Elmira Royster. In 1849 he embarked on a tour of poetry readings and lecturing, hoping to raise funds so he could start his magazine The Stylus.

He was found dead on October 7, 1949. There are conflicting accounts surrounding the last days of Edgar Allan Poe and the cause of his death. Some say he died from alcoholism, some claim he was murdered, and various diseases have also been attributed, but what is true is that his last words were: “God please help my poor soul”.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote about sixty stories, along with a series of poems, but he did not dedicate to this genre the time he would have liked, due to its precarious financial situation.
Some of his most important works are: "The black cat", "Eureka", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Raven", "The Pit and the Pendulum" "Berenice," The Oval Portrait "and" the Masque of the red Death, "among others. After several prose tales such as "Extraordinary Stories" and some critical articles he obtained considerable literary reputation and reached the peak in 1845 with the book "The Raven".

Neither his great success could stop him of his strong tendency to depression.
Alcoholism dragged him to his attacks of melancholy in the same way that his alcoholism was dragging melancholy.