The American poet and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. He hardly knew his parents, who were both actors; his father left when Edgar was a baby, and his mother died before he reached the age of three. John Allan and his wife Frances took the young boy into their home and brought him up as their own child. Between 1815 and 1820 he lived in Scotland and England, where he did well in his studies at a private school near London. Returning to America, he went to study languages at the University of Virginia in 1826. He was an excellent student, but John Allan never sent him enough money to live on.
Poe turned to playing cards for money to help him buy the books and clothes he needed, but lost so much that he was forced to leave the university after a few months.
Poe was determined to become a professional writer, against John Allan's wishes, and the two quarrelled. He left home and went to Boston, where he joined the army. In 1829 he left the army and moved in with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia. John Allan died in 1834, leaving nothing to the person he had treated as a son.
Forced to make his own way in life, Poe managed to get a job with a newspaper called the Southern Literary Messenger. A year later he married Virginia, who was then only thirteen years old.
He had begun to drink heavily, and problems with alcohol stayed with him for the rest of his life. He left his job and went to New York. He worked for different papers there and in Philadephia, and wrote and sold the short stories for which he became famous. In spite of his success, he did not always receive much money for his work, and he and his family were often hungry.
Virginia developed a serious disease and, after five long years of illness, she died in 1847. In 1849 Poe met a Mrs Shelton and they made plans to marry.
He drank less, and for a time it seemed that his troubles were over. But the wedding did not take place, he started drinking heavily again, and he had no money. In October of the same year he died.
The first books of Poe's to appear, in 1827 and 1829, were two collections of poetry. These were not very successful, and he began to write short stories for magazines. The first collection of these, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, appeared in 1840. In the years that followed, Poe became increasingly well known as a story writer, and more collections of stories appeared in 1843 and
1845. He also continued to write poetry, and in 1845 produced The Raven and Other Poems. 'The Raven', a cry for lost love, made him extremely famous, and it has become one of the best-known poems in American literature.
Poe's work includes science fiction, mystery and crime stories. Many of the tales are based on experiences of fear and sadness in his own unfortunate life. The stories in this collection are among the best examples of his writing.
Why should you read Edgar Allan Poe?
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