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Edgar Allen Poe is Born
Poe was born on Jan 19, 1809 Boston Massachusetts, the first child of two actors Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and actor David Poe Jr. -
Edgar Allen Poe's Sister is Born
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Poe's Parents Die
Poe's father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. -
Poe Writes His First Poem
Poe wrote his first poem Tamerlane. -
Poe Enlists in the U.S. Army and shortly after his first book is published.
Poe unable to support himself, so he enlisted in the United States Army as a private on May 27, 1827, using the name "Edgar A. Perry". He claimed that he was 22 years old though he was 18. He first served at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor for five dollars a month.That same year, he released his first book, a 40-page collection of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems, attributed with the byline "by a Bostonian". Only 50 copies were printed, and the book received virtually no attention. -
Poe's Older Brother Dies
Henry traveled around the globe by sea before returning to Baltimore and becoming a published poet and author. One of his works, "The Pirate", was a fictionalized account of his brother's first relationship with Sarah Elmira Royster in Richmond. Henry died of tuberculosis in 1831 at the age of twenty-four. -
Poe marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm.
In 1835, Poe, then 26, obtained a license to marry his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. They were married for eleven years until her early death, which may have inspired some of his writing. -
Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket was published and widely reviewed in 1838. -
Poe's Story Collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes.
The collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes, though he made little money from it and it received mixed reviews -
Poe publishes the poem, The Raven.
On January 29, 1845, his poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror and became a popular sensation. It made Poe a household name almost instantly, though he was paid only $9 for its publication. It was concurrently published in The American Review: A Whig Journal under the pseudonym "Quarles". -
Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx.
Virginia died at the cottage on January 30, 1847.Biographers and critics often suggest that Poe's frequent theme of the "death of a beautiful woman" stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his wife. -
Edgar Allen Poe Dies
On October 3, 1849, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to Joseph W. Walker who found him. He was taken to the Washington Medical College where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849 at 5:00 in the morning.
