Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849

Edgar Allan Poe1809-1849 English 2 Mr. O’Connell Loyola High School

Introduction • Emerson: “To be great is to be misunderstood”: • His ideas were in conflict with the spirit of his age • Took refuge as a “lonely and misunderstood artist • His neurotic personality often mirrored that of his fictional characters

Childhood • Born in Boston, January 19, 1809 • Parents: • David Poe (deserted wife 18 months later) • Elizabeth Arnold Poe (died in 1811) • Became ward of the Mr. & Mrs. John Allan family (never legally adopted) • John Allan—rich tobacco exporter • Mrs. Allan—spoiled Edgar with the affections of a childless wife of an unfaithful father • Led to tensions and jealousies—estranged Poe from Mr. Allan

Education • Received a genteel and thorough education in Virginia and abroad • Lived in England and Scotland (1815-20) • Attended a prestigious classical prep school • Attended the University of Virginia • Mr. Allan removed him b/c of gambling debts • Entered the Army as “Edgar A. Perry” • Entered West Point Academy in 1830 • Felt out of place and grew sick of the Academy • Received a Dishonorable Discharge for neglecting his duties

Love Life • Age 11: infatuated with Jane Stith Stanard, a classmate’s mother • Led to the poem “To Helen” • High School: considered himself engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster • She engaged another while Poe was at UVA • September 1835: Secretly married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm • 1849: Consented to marry Sarah Elmira Royster, his childhood sweetheart

Early Writings • 1827: Tamerlane and Other Poems • Signed “By a Bostonian” • 1829: Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems • 1831: Poems (New York) • 1831 to 1835: Lived as a hack writer in Baltimore • Lived in poverty and struggled • October 12, 1833: published “MS Found in a Bottle” and won a $50 prize • Heralded the success of his short story formula

Writing Career • Editor for Southern Literary Messenger (1835-1837; Richmond, VA) • Brilliant editor, attracted attention for his own critical articles • Personal instability; quarreled with staff • 1838-1844: Period of greatest accomplishment (Philadelphia) • Editor of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, Graham’s Magazine, and The Saturday Museum

Writing Career • Well-known in literary circles for critical articles • Published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) • 1843: Earned fame (and $100) for “The Gold Bug” in Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper • Left Philadelphia and moved to New York and found sporadic employment • Again lived in grueling poverty

Writing Career • In New York, Virginia sick with tuberculosis • Poe’s eccentricities increase; begins to drink • Candid reviews and critical articles gained him many enemies, who ruined his reputation • Despite this, in 1845 published “The Raven” in the Evening Mirror and in The Raven and Other Poems • 1846: Virginia died • 1848: Published Eureka, deemed a work of a demented mind, in which he attempted to unify the laws physical science with those of aesthetic reality

Death • “His life ended, as it had been lived, in events so strange that he might have invented them” (Perkins et al, 529) • Consented to marry Sarah Elmira Royster • Left for Philadelphia on business • Six days later found unconscious on streets of Baltimore • Died in delirium four days later: Oct. 7, 1849 • Obituary: Died of “congestion of the brain”

Contributions • “During a short life of poverty, anxiety, and fantastic tragedy Poe achieved” the following: • establishment of a new symbolic poetry, which encompassed only 48 poems • the formalization of the new short story • the invention of the story of detection and the broadening of science fiction • the foundation of a new fiction of psychological analysis and symbolism • the development of an important critical theory and a discipline of analytical criticism

Literary Philosophy • Emphasis on art that simultaneously appeals to REASON and EMOTION; both head and heart • Influenced the course of creative writing and criticism • Art = an object created in the cause of Beauty • Involves the utmost concentration and unity, with the most scrupulous use of words • Works directed toward universal human response • Like Hawthorne, Poe used symbolism • Unlike Hawthorne, Poe taught no moral lessons except the discipline of Beauty

Source • Perkins, George, Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long, eds. The American Tradition in Literature. 6th ed. New York: Random House, 1985.

Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849