The Story Behind the Literature

Edgar Allan Poe's life was dark and mysterious. It seems as though his life was full of unfortunate events that progressed throughout his life until he suddenly faced death at age 40. Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of three, little Poe lost his parents forever and then remained in the care of his grandfather, John Allan. Later on after Poe attended school in England he then in 1826 attended the University of Virginia. After only eight months of attending the University of Virginia Poe was kicked out for fighting and gambling. After moving on with his life he then decided to attend the U.S. Army for two years. After another falling out and breaking of rules, Poe was thrown out of the U.S. Army and then started to focus on his writing and published three of his works of poetry (Staff).
Poe finally was starting to catch a break. In 1836 Poe was working as an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger back in Virginia. While working as an editor he married his thirteen year old cousin named Virginia Clemm. In 1838 he finally released his first full-length work of fiction, Arthur Gordon Pym. Even though Poe had a steady job and was married he fell to heavy alcoholism which caused him to lose his job (Staff).
After being fired, Poe and Clemm moved to Philadelphia where he became an editor for Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. Here is where Poe's career took off and he began to be known for his dark horror and criticism through the works like "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher". As Poe continued writing he then came out with mystery stories which then made him known as the father of modern detective stories (Staff).
In 1844 Poe moved to New York with his beloved Virginia where he successfully published "The Raven". While Poe was succeeding, death appeared in his life once again. His dear Virginia passed away due to tuberculosis in 1847. The death of Poe's wife drove him into a uncontrolled downward spiral. Poe's alcoholism became uncontrollable. He had many women and was even about to marry another woman. But then Poe's alcoholism drove him into a deeper depression which lead him to being incoherent in a gutter being found three days later. At a hospital Poe died in 1849 on October 7th at the age of 40 (Staff).
Poe's life was filled with darkness, defeat and death. I cannot imagine facing so many losses in my life. His works of writing show the true depression and hurt within his soul. His darkness and gloom lead him to be one of the many well known and renowned writers in American Literature.

Works Cited

Staff, History.com. "Edgar Allan Poe Is Born." History.com. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/edgar-allan-poe-is-born>.