-
Edgar Allan Poe is Born.
Edgar Allan 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. -
Poe's Sister is born.
After Eliza Poe's death in 1811, Rosalie was given a home by the Mackenzies, a prominent Richmond family, but there are conflicting accounts about whether she was treated as a member of the family or merely as a ward. All reports, however, agree that she grew into a "hopelessly dull" woman with a strange, rather off-putting manner, making her a peculiar contrast to her famous brother. -
Poe's Parents Die.
Edgars' father,David, abandoned their family in 1810, and his mother, Eliza, died a year later from consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis). Poe was then taken into the home of John Allan, a successful Scottish merchant in Richmond, Virginia, who dealt in a variety of goods including tobacco, cloth, wheat, tombstones, and slaves. The Allans served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", though they never formally adopted him. -
Poe 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 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." -
Poe's older brother dies.
William Henry Leonard Poe, Edgar’s older brother, dies in Baltimore, probably of tuberculosis or cholera. He was 27 years old. -
Poe marries his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm.
Edgar (aged 27) and Virginia (aged 13) marry in Richmond, Virginia. The ceremony is officiated by the Reverend Amasa Convers, a Presbyterian minister who was also editor of the Southern Religious Telegraph. -
Poe writes his first novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
Poe’s narrative he wrote, called "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym", is published in New York by Harper & Brothers. This same year is when Poe and his family moved to Philadelphia. -
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes.
Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes in Philadelphia, by Lea and Blanchard. That same year Poe’s “Journal of Julius Rodman” is mistaken as an actual account of an expedition and is noted in a document submitted to the U.S. Senate. -
Poe publishes the poem, The Raven.
Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven” is published in the New York Evening Mirror, where it becomes a sensational hit. It is widely reprinted and brings Poe considerable praise and fame, although financially he receives only about $15 for the initial printing. -
Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx.
Virginia Poe dies of tuberculosis in Fordham, New York. She is entombed on February 2 in the Valentine family vault in the Dutch Reformed Church at Fordham. The bed in which she died may still be seen in this house. The tops of the posts at the foot of the bed are cut off so that it will fit under the sloping roof. -
Edgar Allen Poe Dies.
Poe leaves Richmond, perhaps aboard the steamship Pocahontas. He arrives in Baltimore on September 28. Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore in the Washington University Hospital. Edgar Allan Poe is buried in his grandfather’s lot in the Westminster Burying Ground. The ceremony is officiated by the Reverend William T. D. Clemm.
