Biography Edgar Allan Poe

Biography for Edgar Allan Poe, the early years

1806 (March 14) - Traveling stage actors David Poe, Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins marry. (A. H. Quinn gives the date as "between March 14 and April 9, 1806, and probably between April 5th and April 9th, in Richmond, "

1807 (Jan. 30) - William Henry Leonard Poe (usually called Henry) is born to David and Elizabeth Poe in Boston.

1810 (Dec. 20) - Rosalie Poe (often called Rosie or Rose) is born in Norfolk, Virginia. (In a letter from John Allan to Henry Poe, November 1, 1824, Allan makes the odd statement about Rosalie that, "At least She is half your Sister & God forbid my dear Henry that We should visit upon the living the Errors & frailties of the dead," The Poe Log, p. 62. There is, however, no real reason to presume that Rosalie was illegitimate.

1811 (Dec. 8) - Elizabeth Arnold Poe, Edgar's mother, dies in Richmond, Virginia. Her remains are buried at Old St. John's Church in old Richmond. (The exact cause of her death is unknown other than some illness, perhaps pneumonia. Suggestions that she died from tuberculosis are unfounded.

1811 (Dec. 26) - The orphaned Edgar is taken into the home of John and Frances Allan of Richmond. His sister, Rosalie, is taken in by Mr. and Mrs. William Mackenzie, also of Richmond. His brother, Henry, remains in Baltimore with his grandparents. Allan never legally adopts Poe, although Poe calls John Allan "Pa" and Frances Allan "Ma." John and Frances never have children of their own. John Allan has at least one illegitimate child (Edwin Collier). (After Frances's death, John remarried in 1830 and had children through the second Mrs. Allan.)

1812 (Jan. 7) - Poe is baptized by the Reverend John Buchanan and christened as "Edgar Allan Poe," with the Allan's presumably as godparents. Poe's sister Rosalie is baptized on September 3, 1812 as "Rosalie Mackenzie Poe."

Biography for Edgar Allan Poe in his prime

1821 - Poe attends the school of Joseph H. Clarke.

1823 (April?) - Poe attends the school of William Burke.

1824 (June or July) - Poe swims six or seven miles up the James River, against a heavy tide. His schoolmaster follows in a boat in case he needs help.

1824 (October 26-28) - During his tour of American, General
Lafayette visits Richmond, Virginia. The Richmond Junior Volunteers
partake in the ceremonies welcoming him. Poe is a lieutenant of the
Volunteers.

1824 (November ?) - Poe writes a two-line poem: "-- Poetry -
Edgar A. Poe -- Last night, with many cares & toils oppres'd, Weary, I laid
me on a couch to rest --." (This is Poe's earliest surviving poem. It was
never published during his lifetime, nor used as part of a longer poem.)

1825 (March) - Poe leaves Burke's school and attends the
school of Dr. and Mrs. Ray Thomas.

1825 (March 26) - John Allan's uncle William Galt dies in
Richmond. John Allan is named in Galt's will and inherits a comfortable
fortune.

1825 (June 28) - John Allan purchases an enormous brick
mansion called "Moldavia" for $14,950 and moves his family there.
(Moldavia stood on the southeast corner of Fifth and Main Streets in
Richmond until it was torn down sometime around 1890.)

1826 (Feb. 14) - Edgar Allan Poe enters the University of
Virginia, in Charlottesville. (The school, founded by Thomas Jefferson, first
opened its doors on March 7, 1825.)

Biography: Edgar Allan Poe, the twilight years

1849 (July?) - Poe meets with the now widowed Elmira Royster Shelton. Rekindling the youthful romance, Poe asks her to marry him. Mrs. Shelton is initially hesitant, but by August 25 has apparently accepted Poe's proposal. (By remarrying, Mrs. Shelton would have had to give up a large portion of the inheritance left by her husband, as stipulated in his will.)

1849 (August 27) - Poe joins the Sons of Temperance,
Shockoe Hill Division, No. 54. (This society required that its members
abstain completely from the drinking of any alcoholic beverages.)

1849 (Sept. 27) - Poe leaves Richmond, perhaps aboard the
steamship Pocahontas. He arrives in Baltimore on September 28

1849 (Oct. 7) - Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore in the
Washington College Hospital (later Church Home and Hospital).

1849 (Oct. 8 or 9) - 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.

1849 (Oct. 9) - Rufus Wilmot Griswold's slanderous obituary
of Poe, the so-called "Ludwig" article, is published in the New York
Tribune. It is widely copied

1850 (January 10) - The first two volumes of Griswold's
collected Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe are published. Volume I
contains a preface "To the Reader" by Maria Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law,
announcing that Poe himself had selected Griswold as his literary executor
and describing the edition as having been put together for her benefit.
(There is no other substantiation for the idea that Poe selected Griswold
and it may or may not be true. Despite the claim that the books were "for
my benefit," Maria Clemm saw none of the profits gathered by Griswold
and the publishers. Instead, she was given copies of the set to sell on her
own. After her death in 1871, there is a gap of four years in publication of
the set, resuming in 1876, without Maria Clemm's preface.)

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