Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site in Philadelphia tells the dark story of one of American literature's greatest innovators and masters of horror.
By Ryan Dougherty
Edgar Allan Poe is celebrated for tense, heart-pounding stories and poems such as The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart. He is considered a master of horror who turned short stories and poetry into art forms, and Poe's stories of obsession, paranoia, fantasy, and death have inspired such literary giants as Vladimir Nabokov, Ray Bradbury, and Jules Verne. |
Poe spent his most productive years in Philadelphia and lived in this house, now a national historic site. | |
Often overlooked, however, is the story of Poe's life: the heartbreak, financial struggles, success, and mysterious death. That story casts light on his actual identity, helping us to understand what inspired the man whom many consider America's most influential writer.
Poe was born in Boston in 1809 but abandoned by his father and orphaned at two when his mother died. John and Frances Allan of Virginia took Poe in. Between the ages of six and 11, he lived in England and attended boarding school, where he was unpopular and teased for being an un-adopted stepson.
In 1826, he enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he shone academically but incurred gambling debts. At 18, Poe moved to Boston and published his first volume of poems. Unable to support himself, Poe joined the army. He achieved the rank of sergeant-major after only 17 months and was accepted into the West Point military academy.
At this time, Poe's foster mother died, and his foster father disowned him. Tired of West Point's rigors and in a rebellious act of self-sabotage, Poe sought to be court-martialed, ending his military career. At the age of 22, he faced a life of struggle and poverty.
In 1831, Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt and her daughter, Virginia, and he began his professional writing career. A few years later, his prospects brightened. He worked in Richmond as an editor, critic, and contributor for a series of journals, all of which thrived. He married Virginia-then just 13 years old-and they moved to New York City. Two years later, the couple moved to Philadelphia. There, Poe spent his most productive years. One of his homes was a small brick house now a national historic site.
In 1840, he published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, whose sales were surprisingly poor. Many critics, whom Poe alienated in his criticism of them, refused to review it. Poe invented the modern detective story with The Murders in the Rue Morgue, before returning to New York, where he wrote The Raven. The success of the ominous poem gave Poe a steady income and cemented his legacy.
Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847. Watching her wither was, in Poe's words, "a horrible, never-ending oscillation between hope and despair" that caused him to abuse alcohol. Poe returned to Richmond in 1849, then left to visit Philadelphia. For unknown reasons, however, he stopped in Baltimore. In October, he was found lying half-conscious in the street and taken to a hospital, delirious. Poe died on October 7 of "acute congestion of the brain."
Historians say that Poe's literature and criticism were ahead of his time, and that his more than 70 pieces of fiction display an impressive range of genres that he helped forge, including murder mysteries, science fiction, and treasure mysteries with built-in clues.
Poe will probably always be best known, however, for his thrilling tales of terror, or "arabesques," as he called them, which showcased his extraordinary imagination. As written in National Park Service literature, "Poe stands as one of the great innovators in American literature…an original, creative force."
