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Edgar Allan Poe Is Born
Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone. -
Poe’s Sister Is Born
Rosalie seems to have had a distant, if not antagonistic relationship with her famous older brother. She herself claimed that she was "a good size girl" before she even knew she had a sibling--an incredible statement considering they were raised in the same city. -
Poe’s Parents Die
Poe's parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. David was born in Baltimore on July 18, 1784. Elizabeth Arnold came to the U.S. from England in 1796 and married David Poe after her first husband died in 1805. They had three children, Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie. -
Poe Writes His First Poem
Poe writes a two line poem that was never published during his life or used as part of a longer 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 and shortly after his first book is published.
Poe enlists in the U.S. Army under the name "Edgar A. Perry." Shortly after, his first book—a poetry collection entitled Tamerlane and Other Poems—is published. The author is listed only as "A Bostonian." -
Aug 1, 1831 Poe’s older brother dies.
Edgar's older brother Henry dies of either tuberculosis or cholera at the age of 27. -
Poe marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm.
In January 1842 she 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. -
Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
he work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. -
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes.
t was published by the Philadelphia firm Lea & Blanchard and released in two volumes. The publisher was willing to print the anthology based on the recent success of Poe's story "The Fall of the House of Usher." -
Poe publishes the poem, The Raven.
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.” -
Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx.
January 1842 Virginia was showing signs of tuberculosis that led to her progressive disability and in May of 1846 Poe moved Virginia and Muddy to their final home which still stands in Fordham, New York. -
Edgar Allen Poe Dies.
After being found unconscious in a Baltimore gutter, Edgar Allan Poe is taken to the hospital and pronounced dead of causes still unknown. He is buried at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
