FROM THE CYBER BACKWATERS:

January 19: General Interest
1809 : Edgar Allan Poe is born

On this day in 1809, poet, author and literary critic
Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

By the time he was three years old, both of Poe's
parents had died, leaving him in the care of his
godfather, John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant.
After attending school in England, Poe entered the
University of Virginia (UVA) in 1826. After fighting
with Allan over his heavy gambling debts, he was
forced to leave UVA after only eight months. Poe then
served two years in the U.S. Army and won an
appointment to West Point. After another falling-out,
Allan cut him off completely and he got himself
dismissed from the academy for rules infractions.

Dark, handsome and brooding, Poe had published three
works of poetry by that time, none of which had
received much attention. In 1836, while working as an
editor at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond,
Virginia, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia
Clemm. He also completed his first full-length work of
fiction, Arthur Gordon Pym, published in 1838. Poe
lost his job at the Messenger due to his heavy
drinking, and the couple moved to Philadelphia, where
Poe worked as an editor at Burton's Gentleman's
Magazine and Graham's Magazine. He became known for
his direct and incisive criticism, as well as for dark
horror stories like "The Fall of the House of Usher"
and "The Tell-Tale Heart." Also around this time, Poe
began writing mystery stories, including "The Murders
in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter"--works
that would earn him a reputation as the father of the
modern detective story.

In 1844, the Poes moved to New York City. He scored a
spectacular success the following year with his poem
"The Raven." While Poe was working to launch The
Broadway Journal--which soon failed--his wife Virginia
fell ill and died of tuberculosis in early 1847. His
wife's death drove Poe even deeper into alcoholism and
drug abuse. After becoming involved with several
women, Poe returned to Richmond in 1849 and got
engaged to an old flame. Before the wedding, however,
Poe died suddenly. Though circumstances are somewhat
unclear, it appeared he began drinking at a party in
Baltimore and disappeared, only to be found incoherent
in a gutter three days later. Taken to the hospital,
he died on October 7, 1849, at age 40.

history.com/tdih.do