Edgar Allen Poe (1865 words)

Edgar Allen Poe
Many people label Edgar Allen Poe a horror writer, plain and simple others refer
to Poe as the father of the detective story, but over all he´s one
Americas greatest writers. His ability of expressing the world in gothic ways,
really captures the reader´s attention. Even though he lead a tough life
and was known as a sadistic drug addict and alcoholic, he still managed to
produce great pieces of literature. Three of his greatest works were “The
Tell Tale heart”, “The Fall of the House Usher”, and “The
Raven.” All of these are very known troughout the world and are considered
three of Poe´s greatest pieces. He was born in Boston on January 19, 1809,
his parents, regular members of Federal street theater, named him Edgar Poe.

Shortly before his mother’s death in Richmond, Virginia on December 8, 1811, his
father abandoned the family. John Allen, a wealthy tobacco merchant in Richmond,
brought Poe into the family (at his wife’s request), and gave him the middle
name Allen as a baptismal name, though he never formally adopted him. Even
though Allen´s treatment toward Poe is not exactly known, we know that
Allen never treated Poe with sensitivity. In 1815, the Allen family moved to
England on business. There, Poe entered the Manor-House School in
Stoke-Newington, a London suburb. This school taught him “the gothic
architecture and historical landscape of the region made a deep imprint on his
youthful imagination, which would effect his adult writings” (Levin, 14).

The Allens left England in June 1820, and arrived in Richmond on August 2. Here,
Poe entered the English and Classical School of Joseph H. Clarke, a graduate of
Trinity College in Dublin. On February 14, 1826, Poe entered the University of
Virginia. Though he spent more time gambling and drinking than studying, he won
top honors in French and Latin. On May 26, 1827, Poe enlisted in the US Army
under the name Edgar A. Perry. He joined Battery H of the 1st Artillery, then
stationed at Fort Independence. While Poe served there, Calvin F.S. Thomas
printed Poe’s first book, “Tamerlane and Other Poems”, a slim volume,
which failed to earn any fame or money. Poe then visited Baltimore, and arranged
for the printing of another slim volume, entitled “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane,
and Minor Poems”. Then, Allen obtained an appointment for him as a cadet,
so on July 1, 1830 he entered West Point Military Academy, making his residence
at No. 28 in the South Barracks. Poe’s military career, however, flopped. After
his dismissal, he published a third volume of poetry, this one dedicated to
“the US Corps of Cadets”, for he had taken a subscription from them to
raise funds. He then settled in Baltimore with his impoverished aunt, Maria
Clemm, her daughter, Virgina Clemm, and his older brother, William Henry
Leonard. He tried looking for work as a teacher in Baltimore, but another person
got the job and Thomas Willis White hired him as an editor at The Southern
Literary Messenger, in which he published short stories, poems, and ascorbic
literary reviews. In October, the Clemms joined him, and in May he married his
cousin Virginia. The rest of his life, Poe suffered from severe mental
depression and declining physical health. In 1838, he published his only novel,
“The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”. In December, 1839, he lost his
job because of the intense rumors of his excessive drinking habits. “By
late 1846, financial woes and Poe’s own continuing decline ended the
magazine” (Levin, 18). In January 1847, his wife died in their cottage at
Fordham. This made his poverty and instability worst. He continued to write, and
engaged in unsuccessful publishing schemes and romances, until, on October 3,
1849, Joseph W. Walker found him unconscious, (thought to be intoxicated) in the
street. Poe remained hospitalized, oscillating between a somatic state and
violent delirium, until his death at 5 am on the 7th of 1849. Poe’s literature
hardly relates to the harsh realities of 19th century life. The dark, chaotic,
romantic worlds he created represent an escape from the real, unromantic
miseries of life to a place where miseries become grand, beautiful things. The
story “The Tell Tale Heart” portrays the mad obsession of a man with
an old man´s eye. The narrator in the story tries to convince us that he´s
not mad, but only he is very careful by planning and executing the crime. Over
all the story is about a man obsessed with an old man´s eye and the fact
that he cannot