The Haunting Quill of Edgar Allan Poe by Lee Allan Nelson

Poe claimed to have written the work at the age of 14, and was just 18 when it was published anonymously, credited to ‘A Bostonian.’ Only 50 copies were printed, and the book received virtually no attention.Īt the age of 18, Poe enlisted in the Army, and between 18 he moved from Fort Independence in Boston, to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina, and finally to Fort Monroe back in Virginia. Poe and Allan were again at odds, and Poe moved to Boston, where he released his first book, a 40-page collection of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems. He was employed by Allan back in Richmond but was stifled by his foster father’s authoritarian nature and looked for employment elsewhere. His gambling backfired, and he accrued $2,000 in debt, forcing him to leave the University and return to an even angrier foster father. Unable to keep up with the lavish lifestyles of other undergraduates, Poe used the little money sent with him on gambling. On February 14th, 1826, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia. But Poe was educated well, and from 1815-1820 the family lived in London, where young Edgar received part of his education. Allan never formally adopted Poe, and they were often at odds. Although Frances was reportedly a devoted and nurturing foster mother, her husband was cold and aloof. Allan convinced her husband to take in one of the children. In the November 25th, 1811, Richmond Examiner, Frances saw an ad appealing to the citizens to help an actress with three children who had taken ill. Poe was taken in by John Allan, a wealthy exporter, at the behest of his wife Frances. Young Edgar was just two years old at the time. His mother contracted tuberculosis shortly after and died on December 8th, 1811, at the age of 24.

His father, David Poe Jr., abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother moved with her three children, eldest Henry, middle Edgar, and infant Rosalie, to Baltimore. The mystique of his character and imprint of his works can be seen throughout culture today.Įdgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19th, 1809, to parents that were professional actors. More than a hundred and fifty years after his death, the world is still enamored with Poe.

Poe’s bibliography includes about seventy short stories, fifty poems, one complete novel, a play, and ten essays, and he is considered one of the first American writers to make a living on writing alone. His short stories were focused on a want to evoke terror or passion, or horror, while his poetry illustrated his experience of beauty through sadness, strangeness, and loss. Through his essays, he ushered in a new form of literary criticism based on technique, style, language, and structure rather than ideology or morality. He crafted the template for the modern short story during his short lifetime and pioneered “art for art’s” sake in literature. Edgar Allan Poe was only forty years old when he mysteriously died on October 7th, 1849.

The Haunting Quill of Edgar Allan Poe by Lee Allan Nelson