He had settled in NY, but he couldn't find a job. He asked his dad for help but got no answer. He finally set up with his aunt, Mrs. Clem in Baltimore. He failed as a poet but turned to story writing. Now is when his short stories started to surface. He competed for best short story with entries from the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. He did not win this contest but all the stories were eventually published in the paper.

             In 1833 The Saturday Visitor of Baltimore announced a literary contest with prizes of fifty dollars for best short story and twenty-five for best poem. Poe sent in many stories. Found in a Bottle won the story prize and his poem would have won but they decided not to let the same person win both. It was not much money but a novelist took an interest to Poe and made friends with him by helping him to sell short story to the new Southern Literary Messenger of Richmond. Poe joined the staff of the magazine and soon became the editor. Many of his own stories appeared in the magazine.

             Once his job was set he invited his aunt and her daughter to come live with him. Later he married his cousin Virginia who was much younger than him (she was 12). He was good at his job making a name for himself and the magazine. Poe had many problems, he still drank heavily and was dismissed from the magazine rehired and fired for the same reason again. They then moved to NY where Mrs. Clem opened up a boarding house to support them. Poe couldn't find a job but he published a story called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. This story was so convincing critics thought that it was a record of a real voyage. They moved again to Philadelphia where he started editing Burton's Gentlemen"s magazine. A contract said he had to write one story of suspense or horror per month. These stories were collected and published under the title Tales of The Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840. When Burton's was sold Poe became the editor of the new one, Graham's magazine.