Edgar A. Poe
Edgar Allan Poe, also known as the father of the short story, was a brilliant man of the nineteenth century. Many people of this era did not know of him in this manor, but nonetheless, he still established his own place in the history of American literature. During the time he was living, he was known as a harsh literary critic. He was not recognized as a great American author until after his death on October 7, 1849. Consequently, the writers of today make use of his novel ideas and apply his techniques to their own literary creations. He may have been a great influence on many people and a great writer, but he still led a life filled with personal hardships and tragedies. He wrote with a dark tone in the majority of his works. Walt Whitman once said, "Poe's verses illustrate an incorrigible propensity toward nocturnal themes, with a demonic undertone behind every page,"(Bloom 20). During the majority of his life, he held on to sanity by a thin string. One man comme!Even a man of harder temperament might well have been plunged into depressions by the illness and deaths, frustrations and reversals that punctuated Edgar Allan Poe's brief life. Numerous commentators have suggested that art itself was the therap
Poe continued to write short stories and tried to get them published over the next two years. Although he had the help of a novel and inspiring comrade, John Pendleton Kennedy, he was not successful. Kennedy was a lawyer and a writer. His financial security faded even more when his John Allan died on March 27, 1834. Poe had returned home to see him before he died and got into a quarrel with his new wife. Edgar was taken out of the will and estate after this confrontation. In another endeavor to start his own literary magazine, Poe moved to Richmond. He made this move in 1849. Poe delivered a lecture on the "Poetic Principle" in Richmond on September 24. This public appearance would be the last time he would be in the eyes of the public. Little is known of his activities between the times of the lectures and when he was found semiconscious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland. Poe did not recover physically this time and died on Sunday morning, October 7, in the Washington College Hospital. When they returned to Richmond, Poe's foster father enrolled him in Trinity College under the teaching of Joseph Clarke. While studying with Clarke, Poe read works by such writers as Cicero, Caesar, Horace, and Homer. In addition to his academics, Poe excelled in athletics. One classmate, James Preston, once said, "Poe was a swift runner, a wonderful leaper, and what was more rare, a boxer with some slight training,"(Szunski 17). Poe even set a broad jump record of twenty-one feet and six inches. It was during this time that Poe fell in love with one of his classmate's mother. Poe had met Rob Stanard at school, and one weekend, he was invited to go home with him. While there, Poe fell in love with this woman. Poe worshiped this beautiful and sympathetic woman. Her name was Jane Stith Stanard. Poe wrote his famous poem, "To Helen," about her. In this poem, we can clearly see his love for her. "Helen, thy beauty is to me. . . Like those Nicean lords of yore. . . ."(Poe 62). She died in 1824 of tragic circumstances. This was another instance of death that drastically affected Poe's outlook on life. Poe was soon honorably discharged and from there he sought enrollment into West Point. He struggled to get into the academy, but eventually got in. Allan remarried, and in October of 1830, Poe received a letter from him. The letter, in short, disowned him. Poe soon lost all interest in the military. He had been in the military in order to please his foster father. Poe purposely missed roll calls and neglected his academic and military duties. He was doing this to get discharged. He was released on March 6, 1831. Poe's Decline was started in the year of 1846. The Broadway Journal was taken out of print. Soon after, Poe was caught up in a scandalous affair with two "groupies" and a struggle with the literary establishment. His wife was extremely ill, and he had to move his family thirteen miles outside the city to a rural home in Fordham. Poe completely fell apart after his wife, Virginia Poe, died on January 30, 1847. Poe never fully recovered from this devastating blow to his mental health. He did, though, publish what he considered the capstone of his career in the following year. It was called Eureka, subtitled A Prose Poem. This work was an examination of the origin of everything. Carlson, Eric W., ed. The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. 1969. Magill, Frank N., ed. Magill's Survey of American Literature. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, Vol. 5, 1991, pp. 1640-1654. It was around this time that John Allan inherited a large fortune from his uncle, William Galt, making him one of the wealthiest men in Virginia. The family soon moved into a mansion known as the Allan House. In an attempt to secure his future, Poe decided to take a more active roll in the family, and tried to regain better standings with John Allan.
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Approximate Word count = 3133
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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