The life of Edgar Allan Poe is almost as strange as his poems and short stories. He is
considered by many to be one of the most famous poets and short-story writers. Poe was
born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to Eliza and David Poe Jr. His
parents were both actors and shortly after Edgar was born they moved from Boston to
New York in the summer of 1809. Edgar Allan Poe's father abandoned his mother and
his brother while he was two years old because Eliza often received great reviews that
offered many jobs and David was not really liked by many critics. A few months Poe's
father left him and his family, Poe's mother became severely ill. (The New Book of
Knowledge 348) It is thought that the reason of her illness is because she never really
recovered of her husband leaving her and her children.
(www.island-of-freedom.com/POE.HTM) By the time Poe was three years of age, both
Edgar was adopted by his aunt and lived at their house. This is where he met his
wife to be, Virginia Clem, who was also his cousin. He the tried to go to the University
of Virginia for a year but gambling debts to many people forced him drop out in 1828. In
1829, he enrolled at West Point Military Academy and that is where his writings started.
This is where he wrote his first volume of poetry, "Tamerlane and other Poems". Poe
was finally dismissed from West Point Military Academy to pursue his literary career in
1831. In 1836 he finally married his life-long love, his cousin, Virginia Clem. To
produce income for him and his wife he took a job as an editor for a magazine called
"Southern Literary Messenger" in Richmond, Virginia and later took jobs as an editor in
Philadelphia and New York City. While working as an editor he made many volumes of
poetry and wrote many short stories, the last volumes to be "The Raven and Other
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