Edgar Allan Poe: An Essay

Edgar Allan Poe is certainly a gifted writer, and poet. However, his life was not just filled with riches and fame. His life was filled with many tragedies which I think outweigh the fortune.
	Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. His father abandoned him within the first year of his life. He was raised by just his mother, Elizabeth Poe who struggled to raise him and his other 3 siblings, but when Egdar was just 2 years old, his mother passed away of tuberculosis. After the death of his mother, Poe and his 3 other siblings were passed on to different foster homes.
	Poe was put into the Allan Family. Mrs. Allan (Frances Allan) was very captivated with Mrs. Poe, so since Mrs. Allan had no children, she took in Poe. Poe grew up with a good education and with good manners from his foster father, Mr. Allan (John Allan), but as Poe grew older, a gap formed between him and Mr. Allan.
	Even though Poe and his John. Allan had sort of a gap between them, Frances Allan loved Poe very much which helped him grow with confidence. Poe’s first love interest was Poe's friend’s mother. Sadly, she died when he was just 15. This left Poe broken up, he would go to her grave and start crying a lot.
	Later on, while Poe was still weeping about the death of his first love interest, his own foster mother, Frances Allan was struck with tuberculosis. As she was struggling with tuberculosis Mr. Allan was having affairs in his own home. This upset young Poe because he thought women should be treated with respect.
	In 1827 John Allan sent off young Poe to the University of Virginia. Which at the time was a wild school. The police kept having to go there due to fights breaking out and one of the professors even got murdered there. “Poe’s imagination kept dazzling his classmates. He would draw all over the walls and ceilings of his room.” - Biography, July 11, 2021, Youtube.com. Students would go see him and he would tell them stories that he came up with.
	Poe soon found himself struggling with money. John Allan gave Poe enough money to get to the university, but left no other money for basic needs. He couldn’t afford food, clothes, or other necessities. When Poe was desperate, he tried gambling for money. He ended himself up in huge debt, and when he asked John Allan for help, he didn’t help. In fact, he wanted to disown him. Poe had to break things in his room and burn it to not freeze to death.
	He soon left the university with debtors going after him. You could go to prison over your debt then so to avoid jail he joined the army under a different name. He was very good in the army, rising to one of the highest ranks, but he only considered the army a gateway to his ultimate goals. Soon he cut off his connections with his foster father and was on his own in life.
	In 1829 Frances Allan died of her tuberculosis. Her death severely affected him. It was the second person whom he loved to die of tuberculosis. 2 years after her death Poe moved into his Aunt Maria Clemm’s house with her daughter Virginia, who was eight at the time.
	Poe loved his home with Maria Clemm and Virginia very much. He finally could try to become a successful writer, but had a hard time selling his books such as the Tell-Tale Heart. “The Publishers thought it was too loud, they wanted more quiet stories.” Biography, July 11, 2021, Youtube. Poe was stuck trying to survive by writing books to support Maria Clemm and Virginia.
In 1834 his foster father John Allan passed away. On his deathbed John Allan cursed Poe because he thought he was very ungrateful, leaving him out of his will. He had received none of his money. In 1835 Poe left his home to become an editor.  He was considered a marvelous editor, however was constantly in arguments with his bosses. “He had the nickname of the Tomahawk or the Comanche of Literature because of his brutal, slashing reviews.” Biography, July 11, 2021, Youtube.
Poe had moved to Richmond, and a very short time after that, something devastating to Poe happened. Maria Clemm announced the plan to have Virginia (12 years old at the time) move in with another family member. This caused Poe to have depression, and become an alcoholic. During a drinking episode he almost lost his job, and realized that he was in love with Virginia. The next month, Poe married his own cousin, Virginia. Virginia was not even a teenager at the time 26 year old Poe married her. To avoid trouble Poe listed Virginia as a 21 year old instead of 13 on the marriage bill.
Poe loved Virginia very much, they would sing and take walks everyday, but one day while on the piano, Virginia started coughing, and some blood came up meaning she had tuberculosis. As Virginia was fighting tuberculosis, Poe had achieved his first fame. He had written the poem “The Raven”. While it had made him famous in public, it did not achieve him riches. He only made a few dollars off of The Raven. He loved the fame it brought him, but he was still very very poor.
On January 30, 1847, Virginia Passed away. Poe soon found himself in love with another woman, named Helen. He loved Helen very much and proposed to her, to which she said yes. But Helen’s mother made a document that Poe had to sign which said that he had no claim on Helen's estate. Poe took this as an insult and called off the engagement with Helen entirely.
Poe was soon engaged with another woman named Elmira Shelton, he quickly set off for New York to tell Maria Clemm of the happy news. He disappeared for days and then when they found him, he wasn’t wearing his own clothes and he was just laying on the street. They rushed him to a hospital where he soon died.
Edgar Allan Poe had a very tragic life. He couldn’t catch a break whether it was financial struggles or the loss of a loved one. I think his life was more tragic than it was fortune because even when he struck fame he was never rich. He always struggled to care for his family, while some of his family didn’t care for him, making his life full of struggle.