Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, as any other person, had a life filled with tragedies that made his writing. From the start of his writing career, he loved writing poems for the important people in his life. Once he got older, a harsh reality check was thrown at him which pushed him towards alcohol and drug abuse. His work started to become more dark and disturbing. Many historians and other authors say his love life contributed to his substance abuse, although it has never been proven. Many of Poe's pieces contain a lot of his personal life experiences. The most important factor were the deaths of the many people he loved. Which darkened his thoughts on everyday life.

At a young age, Poe‘s life already started to fall apart. Right before Poe's third birthday, His father abandoned them a little after Edgar was born and his mother sadly died of tuberculosis. He and his siblings were unfortunately orphaned. At the time, Edgar was too young to be influenced by the death of his own mother. At the age of six, Poe became so afraid of the dead or dying he would panic whenever he passed a cemetery. As he thought the ghosts and bodies would come after him. (Reuben, p76) (Womack.)

Not so long after his mothers death, Edgar was taken in by John Allan, a foster father. He eventually followed them and moved to Richmond, Virginia to join his new family. John Allan, the father of his new foster family, was always abusive. John Allan was very often under the influence of alcohol during the fights. Since they fought all the time, Poe decided to join the army, just to get away from his new foster father. Edgar stood out in the military, around the same time, he also published his first book, "Tamerlane and Minor Poems". Recently, a single copy of the famous tale sold for over 200,000 dollars. This book was one of the books to set his career off. At this time, John Allan's abuse had not really phased Poe enough to write about him But as he got older, Poe would start to realize, even without John Allan alive, how harsh and abusive life could be. (Mayne, p122) (Poe)

Frances Valentine Allan was his foster mother that he looked at, as his real mom. Frances is the reason Edgar had even just a little bit of light-heartedness somewhere deep down in himself. Even with all the abuse they put up with. Anytime that she could protect him from the abuse of John Allan, she would. Later on as they're relationship became more than just close, Frances died at an early stage. Which made there close relationship very hard for him to handle.(Mayne p196)

Poe eventually moved in with his aunt as they all moved to Richmond, Virginia for a period of time, as he wrote for The Messenger Magazine. Poe‘s amazing writing brought the magazines popularity up, which was good for him also. But because of his substance abuse, his boss was forced to let him go. Edgar eventually moved on and married his young cousin, Virginia. After a short period of time, she also died of tuberculosis, yet again. During Virginia's burial, Poe had a speech, where he said "Deep in earth my love is lying and I must weep alone"(Womack.) This death, again, led him to excessive drinking and more drug abuse. It later, affected him in a big way, when he started to loose jobs, and a cancelled speech to be said at the white house, along with two marriages. (Reuben, p79)(Poe)

After Virginia's sad death, Edgar