Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
4.16 EDGAR ALLAN POE
(1809–1849)
Written by Corey Parson
Born in Boston to actors Elizabeth
Arnold Poe and David Poe, Jr., Edgar
Allan Poe was swiftly abandoned by both
parents before the age of four. His father
simply picked up and left the family. A
year later, Poe’s mother unfortunately
contracted tuberculosis and passed away,
leaving Poe an orphan. He was taken in
by John Allan, a tobacco merchant, and
his wife, Frances Valentine Allan. The
Allans raised Poe as their own, though
he was never ocially adopted by the
couple.
Poe took to poetry at a young age,
which often caused a clash between
himself and his adoptive father. Whereas
John Allan wished for Poe to take over the
family business, Poe had no such desire
and continued to write. As a young man, Image 4.14 | Edgar Allan Poe
Photographer | Unknown
he attended the University of Virginia
Source | Wikimedia Commons
with Allan footing the bill. However,
License | Public Domain
this arrangement didn’t last long as
Allan refused to continue to pay for Poe’s secondary education, reportedly due to
nancial disagreements between the two men. After amounting a mass of debt due
to gambling, Poe was forced to leave the university and enlisted in the Army.
It was while in the Army that Poe anonymously published his rst collection,
Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). After Frances Valentine Allan, the only mother
Poe knew, died of tuberculosis, John Allan and Poe mended their relationship, and
Allan helped Poe get accepted into West Point. Though he was a good student,
Poe’s mind wandered more to prose and poetry and less to his duties at West Point.
Worse yet, his relationship with Allan was on the rocks yet again. Poe was kicked
out of West Point, though it is unclear if Poe purposefully caused his expulsion to
spite his foster father. Allan won the parting shot though; after his death in 1834,
he left Poe out of his will completely.
After West Point, Poe traveled extensively, living in poverty as a full-time writer
in major cities like New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. While
in Richmond, he fell in love with his cousin, Virginia Clemm, and married her in
1836. Poe was 27, and Clemm was 13.
Page | 994