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Edgar Allan Poe is born
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic. Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. -
Poe's sister is born
Rosalie Mackenzie Poe was born on December 10, 1810 in Norfolk, Virginia. She was the youngest of the three children of David Poe and Eliza Arnold. -
Poe's Parents Die
Edgar Allan Poe's mother died of tuberculosis when he was two years old in Richmond, Virginia. His father abandoned his wife and children and soon died of tuberculosis just as his wife did. -
Poe's writes his first poem
A fifteen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe pens his first known poem: "Last night, with many cares & toils oppres'd,/ Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest." -
Poe enlists in the U.S. Army
Edgar Allan Poe enlists in the U.S. Army under the name "Edgar A. Perry." Shortly after, his first book entitled—Tamerlane and Other Poems—is published. -
Poe's older brother dies
William Henry Leonard Poe referred to as Henry Poe was said to be a heavy drinker and may have been an alcoholic. He died of tuberculosis in Baltimore. He was twenty-four.Henry was buried at what is now Westminster Hall and Burying Ground. -
Poe marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm
Virginia Clemm was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27. -
Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
Poe's first novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is the only complete novel written by him. The novel relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus. -
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is a collection of previously published short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. It was published by the Philadelphia firm Lea & Blanchard and released in two volumes. -
Poe published the poem, The Raven
The Raven is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe. First published in 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. -
Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx
In January 1842, Virginia contracted tuberculosis, growing worse for five years until she died of the disease at the age of 24 in the family's cottage outside New York City. -
Edgar Allan Poe dies
Edgar Allan Poe was found in a Baltimore street (some reports say in a gutter), semi-conscious and wearing clothes that didn't fit him. He was taken to a hospital, where he spent four days before perishing on 7 October 1849 at the age of 40, but no one knows exactly what happened to Edgar Allan Poe.
