Edgar Alan Poe Essay -- essays research papers

The Life Of Edgar Alan Poea Biography1809 -- 1849 He gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a dozen stories as well as ofThe Raven and former(a) Poems, and he enjoyed a few months of calm as a regard criticand writer. After his wife died in 1847, however, his life began to unravel regular(a) faster as he incited close to from city to city, talking to and writing, drinking heavily, and courting severalolder women. Just before marrying one, he died in Baltimore after being foundsemiconscious in a tavern - possibly from too much alcohol, although it is a myth that hewas a habitual drunkard and drug addict. Admittedly a hardship in nearly areas of his personal life, he was recognized as anremarkably gifted writer and was admired by Dostoevsky and Baudelaire, even if not ceaselesslyappreciated by many of his other contemporaries. Master of symbolism and the macabre,he is considered to be the father of the detective story and a stepfather of science fiction,and he remains one of the most timeless and extraordinary of all American creative artists. Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second ofthe three children of David Poe and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, twain of whom wereprofessional actors and members of a touring theatrical company. Eclipsed by his morefamous wife, his protest promising career ruined by alcoholism, Poes father deserted thefamily when Edgar was salvage an infant nothing conclusive is k presentlyn of his life thereafter.While visual aspect professionally in Richmond, Virginia, Poes mother became ill and died onDecember 8, 1811, at the age of twenty-four. Her three children, who wouldmaintain contact with one another passim their lives, were sent to live with differentfoster families. Edgar became the ward of John Allan, a successful tobacco merchant inRichmond, and his wife Frances, who had no children of their own. Although neverformally adopted by them, Poe regarded the couple, especially Mrs. A llan, as parents, andhe took their style as his own middle name. In 1815, business reasons led Allan tomove to England for what would be a five-year stay. Both in London and then inRichmond after the familys return, Poe was well educated in private academies. In 1825,he became secretly engaged to... ...d, plunging Poe into an emotional and physicalcollapse that lasted for most of the year. In 1848, he was briefly engaged to marry SarahHelen Whitman, a widowed poet several years his senior, but their relationship was tenseand strained, and the engagement was upset off. He went to Richmond in the summer of1849, hoping to find financial computer backup for yet another journal, and while there he wasreunited with and re-engaged to Elmira Royster, his first love, now herself a widow. Hesailed from Richmond to Baltimore, where on October 3, 1849, he was found out of doors apolling place (it was election day), in a state of mania and wearing shabby and ill-fittingclothing. He was ta ken to a nearby hospital, where he raved feverishly for several daysbefore dying on October 7 at the age of forty. Neither the circumstances that had led to hiscondition nor the subscribe cause of his death have ever been satisfactorily determined. Poesposthumous temperament sustained grievous and long-lasting damage from a libelous lifetime by Rufus Griswold, whom Poe himself had appointed his literary executor, andrumors, mostly unfounded, circulate to this day about Poes mental state and personalhabits.