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He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and was the second oldest son.
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Poe's sister Rosalie is born. Shortly after her birth, David Poe the children's father deserts the family.
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His father abandoned their family in 1810, and his mother died a year later from pulmonary tuberculosis.
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This poem, named "Poetry" was most likely incomplete and never printed in Poe's lifetime. Its two lines were found written on a page of some of John Allan's financial records. This is the earliest surviving manuscript in Poe's own hand.
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His elder brother Henry had been in ill health, in part due to problems with alcoholism, and he died on August 1, 1831. After his brother's death, Poe began more earnest attempts to start his career as a writer.
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Poe was 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 even though he was 18. He released his first book, a 40-page collection of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems, attributed with the byline "by a Bostonian".
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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.
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This rousing sea adventure follows a New England boy, Pym, who stows away on a whaling ship with its captain's son, Augustus. The two boys, who find themselves repeatedly on the brink of discovery or death, witness many hair-raising events, including mutiny, savagery, cannibalism, and frantic pursuits.
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In 1839, 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. It's a collection of previously published short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.
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In January 1845, Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness.
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His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. They were married for eleven years until her early death, which may have inspired some of his writing.
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On October 3, 1849, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own.
