Edgar Allan Poe Research Paper Outline
Morrow 1
Edgar Allan Poe
Before you read this paper, keep in mind that the name “Poe” brings to mind the images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead.
Who was Edgar Allan Poe? “Poe” was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, to David and Elizabeth Poe. He had one brother Henry, and a sister Rosalie. Edgar was only two years old when his mother died in 1811. Due to the prior separation with his father, Henry went to live with his grandparents while Edgar was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan. His sister Rosalie was taken in by another family. Edgar was lucky though, ending up living …show more content…
with a successful family in a good area with good schools. Before leaving England, he learned Latin and French, as well as math and history. He finished his schooling in America.
At age seventeen, he attended the University of Virginia.
Even though his father was well off, he only provided Edgar with a third of what he needed. Within less than a year, due to the dept brought on from drinking to much, he dropped out of school. Two years later after joining the army, Mrs. Allan died. Poe had no
Morrow 2 friends, no job, and was in financial trouble. John Allan died in 1834 and did not mention Edgar anywhere in his will. “The Manuscript Found in a Bottle,” won him a job as editor of a newspaper in 1835. In 1836, at age 27, Edgar married his fourteen year old cousin Virginia.
His first volume of short stories, “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,” were published in 1839. In 1845, the publication of, “The Raven,” made Poe a household name. He was famous enough to draw large crowds to lectures, and he was beginning to demand better pay for his work. He briefly lived his dream of running his own magazine when he bought out the owners of the “Broadway …show more content…
Journal.”
In the winter of 1847, in a small cottage in the country, Virginia died of Tuberculosis at the young age of twenty-four. His critics assumed he would be dead soon. He spent most of that time traveling and giving lectures and finding backers for his latest proposed magazine project to be called the “Stylus.”
Morrow 3 Poe met and befriended Nancy Richmond while on tour in Lowell Massachusetts.
His idealized and platonic love of her inspired some of his greatest poetry including “For Annie.” Since she was untouchable and married, Poe attempted to marry the poetess Sara Helen Whitman in Providence, but the engagement only lasted about a month.
While in Richmond he found his first fiancée Elmira Royster Shelton was now a widow, so he began to court her again. Before he went on a trip to Philadelphia he considered himself engaged to her, and letters from her imply that she also felt the same way. On the way to Philadelphia, Poe stopped in Baltimore and disappeared for five days.
On October 3, 1849, Edgar was found in the bathroom at the Gunnell’s Hall, a public house that was being used as a polling place for an election. The magazine editor, Joseph Snodgrass, sent Poe to the Washington College Hospital, where he spent his last days in and out of consciousness, far away from home, and surrounded by nothing but strangers. They were never able to explain what happened to him to cause any of this. On October 7, 1849, only at the age of
40,
Morrow 4
Edgar Allan Poe died in the hospital. Still to this day his death is a mystery to all. There are many urban legends and myths, but no final conclusions.
How did others feel about Poe’s writings? Here are a few quotes by some ctitics, “His talents are of an order that can never prove a comfort to their possessor.” (comments by his foster father John Allen, on the back of a Feb. 21, 1831 letter from Poe. Alans note is dated April 12, 1833. “Mr. Poe has that incredible something which men have agreed to call genius. No man could ever tell us precisely what it is, and yet there is none who is not inevitably aware of its presence and it’s power…(James Russell Lowell, “Edgar Allen Poe,” Graham’s Magazine, Feb. 1845.)
Edgar Allen Poe was best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, and considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He was the first American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. Poe and his work s influenced literature in the United States and around the world. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are museums today.
Edgar Allan Poe
Before you read this paper, keep in mind that the name “Poe” brings to mind the images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead.
Who was Edgar Allan Poe? “Poe” was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, to David and Elizabeth Poe. He had one brother Henry, and a sister Rosalie. Edgar was only two years old when his mother died in 1811. Due to the prior separation with his father, Henry went to live with his grandparents while Edgar was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan. His sister Rosalie was taken in by another family. Edgar was lucky though, ending up living …show more content…
with a successful family in a good area with good schools. Before leaving England, he learned Latin and French, as well as math and history. He finished his schooling in America.
At age seventeen, he attended the University of Virginia.
Even though his father was well off, he only provided Edgar with a third of what he needed. Within less than a year, due to the dept brought on from drinking to much, he dropped out of school. Two years later after joining the army, Mrs. Allan died. Poe had no
Morrow 2 friends, no job, and was in financial trouble. John Allan died in 1834 and did not mention Edgar anywhere in his will. “The Manuscript Found in a Bottle,” won him a job as editor of a newspaper in 1835. In 1836, at age 27, Edgar married his fourteen year old cousin Virginia.
His first volume of short stories, “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,” were published in 1839. In 1845, the publication of, “The Raven,” made Poe a household name. He was famous enough to draw large crowds to lectures, and he was beginning to demand better pay for his work. He briefly lived his dream of running his own magazine when he bought out the owners of the “Broadway …show more content…
Journal.”
In the winter of 1847, in a small cottage in the country, Virginia died of Tuberculosis at the young age of twenty-four. His critics assumed he would be dead soon. He spent most of that time traveling and giving lectures and finding backers for his latest proposed magazine project to be called the “Stylus.”
Morrow 3 Poe met and befriended Nancy Richmond while on tour in Lowell Massachusetts.
His idealized and platonic love of her inspired some of his greatest poetry including “For Annie.” Since she was untouchable and married, Poe attempted to marry the poetess Sara Helen Whitman in Providence, but the engagement only lasted about a month.
While in Richmond he found his first fiancée Elmira Royster Shelton was now a widow, so he began to court her again. Before he went on a trip to Philadelphia he considered himself engaged to her, and letters from her imply that she also felt the same way. On the way to Philadelphia, Poe stopped in Baltimore and disappeared for five days.
On October 3, 1849, Edgar was found in the bathroom at the Gunnell’s Hall, a public house that was being used as a polling place for an election. The magazine editor, Joseph Snodgrass, sent Poe to the Washington College Hospital, where he spent his last days in and out of consciousness, far away from home, and surrounded by nothing but strangers. They were never able to explain what happened to him to cause any of this. On October 7, 1849, only at the age of
40,
Morrow 4
Edgar Allan Poe died in the hospital. Still to this day his death is a mystery to all. There are many urban legends and myths, but no final conclusions.
How did others feel about Poe’s writings? Here are a few quotes by some ctitics, “His talents are of an order that can never prove a comfort to their possessor.” (comments by his foster father John Allen, on the back of a Feb. 21, 1831 letter from Poe. Alans note is dated April 12, 1833. “Mr. Poe has that incredible something which men have agreed to call genius. No man could ever tell us precisely what it is, and yet there is none who is not inevitably aware of its presence and it’s power…(James Russell Lowell, “Edgar Allen Poe,” Graham’s Magazine, Feb. 1845.)
Edgar Allen Poe was best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, and considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He was the first American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. Poe and his work s influenced literature in the United States and around the world. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are museums today.