A Quick Review
Lifetime Highlights The Poe family was abandoned by David Poe (Edgar’s father) when Edgar was very young. Both David and Elizabeth Poe, Edgar’s parents were actors.
Soon after, when Edgar was only three, his mother died of tuberculosis (TB), called “Consumption” in those days.
Young Edgar was then taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. John Allan was a wealthy, tobacco merchant.
Young Edgar was raised as a Southern Gentleman. He was raised to be convivial (cordial), polite and genial and he was all of those things. When his foster mother, Frances Allan, was sick with TB, Edgar became estranged from his foster father because John Allan would have numerous affairs with other women in his own home. Edgar found this behavior appalling, even though it was not frowned upon in that time.
John Allan sent Poe to the University of Virginia, but only gave him enough money to get there. He did not give him money for anything else he needed and so Poe tried to make money gambling. He quickly ended up in debt and John Allan would not cover those debts. Afraid he would be sent to debtor’s prison, Poe ran to Baltimore, joined the army under an assumed name.
In 1831, he moved into the Baltimore home of his Aunt Maria Clemm and her eight year old daughter, Virginia.
He became a well known critic, brutal in his evaluation of the works he read. Even though he was a success as a critic, he did not make a lot of money.
In time, he realized he was in love with Virginia. They were married soon after. He was 26; she was almost 13.
The Poe family was very happy, but money was always an issue.
Poe was a genius, far ahead of his time.
He had a hard time selling “The Tell-tale Heart”. It frightened people and it dealt with very modern thinking. People did not understand how the mind worked.
In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator is forced by his own guilt to confess to the murder. This is very similar to the idea of modern Psychotherapy, where we need to purge ourselves of the guilt we feel for doing something we know is wrong.
Poe’s poem,“The Raven”, became an instant success!
He earned $14.00 for the sale of “The Raven”. It brought him fame, but it didn’t bring him any great amount of money!
Poe created C. August Dupin and the detective story, long before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes!
“Murders In The Rue Morgue” is the first detective story EVER written! All others emulate this prototype!!!
Poe creates Dupin with the characteristics he believes a good detective should have: Retentivememory Powers of observation Vivid imagination
The whole point of the story was the method used to solve the murder, not the murder itself.
That is why he put the epigraph in the beginning! What songs the Syrens sang Or what name Achilles assumed When he hid himself with women, Although puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture.
It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic. ~Edgar Allan Poe
In 1847, Virginia succumbs to Consumption after a five year battle. This time was a terrible time in Poe’s life. He watched her get sick, cough up blood, recover somewhat, and get sick all over again. He continually thought that each time she would die.
He also didn’t make enough money to keep her well fed, buy her medicine, and keep her warm.
After Virginia’s death, Poe searched frantically for a female influence in his life. So many of the people in his life that were important to him died, many from TB.
In 1849, Poe was on his way to tell Muddy (Maria Clemm; his mother-in-law) that he was going to be married again. He disappeared and resurfaced on a Baltimore street, disheveled and unconscious. He wasn’t even wearing his own clothes!
Poe died a few days later. The original theory was that he had been drinking, or suffering from brain fever, or used as a repeat voter….. However…
A new theory surfaced that attributed his death to a case of advanced rabies… But…
We really do not know how Poe died! His friends noticed that he looked very sickly right before he died.
He is buried between Virginia and Maria Clemm in Baltimore. Monument in front of cemetery Poe’s grave in the back of the cemetery
Edgar Allan Poe was 40 years old.
Edgar Allan Poe contributed so much to the literary world . It is a shame he did not live to see the impact he had!
