Edgar Allan's life was like so many of his tales. Short, and oddly haunted. He died early at the age of 40 done in by a nervous disorder that buried it self in alcohol. But he left behind him a "literary legacy" unmatched to this day.

Edgar was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, born by David and Betty Poe, both actors, and was orphaned at the age of three after an early childhood spent in shabby dressing rooms of his parents. John and Frances Allan adopted him, and he grew up under the care of Frances and her servant, Nancy. They lived in Richmond until 1815 when John Allan took them to England. In 1816 Edgar was enrolled at a London boarding school. In 1820 the family moved back to Richmond and Edgar went to Joseph W. Clarke School.

When he went to college at the University of Virginia he had fallen in love with Elmira Royster and had written her letters from college. When he returned he found that her parents had taken the letters and Elmira assuming he had forgotten her had been engaged to another man. That caused him to write about his heartbreak and form a poem, Tamerlane.

In May of 1827 he enlisted in the Army under the name of Edgar A. Perry. There he wrote Al Aaraaf. Even though he got a promotion to Regimental Sergeant Major he asked for a discharge. They granted it as long as he made a truce with his foster father whom he hated. He tried and when John Allan said no, Edgar went into a nervous breakdown.

On Feb. 28, 1829, Frances Allan died. Doing as his wife requested, John Allan went to see his son again. The discharge was arranged.

Edgar went to move in with his cousin, Mrs. Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. Then in 1830, he dreamed of a military career again. He gained admission and immediately regretted it. He started to drink and in 1831 he was court-martialed and moved back in with his cousin.

Soon afterward he had a love affair with Mary Starr which ended abruptly caused by Edgar's drinking. He and his family found themselves in serious dire straits.

In 1833 he made $50 of prize money on "Ms. Found in A Bottle." He was twenty-four. He started to make money by writing. He also started on opium.

By now he was deeply in love with Virginia who was only 14, but on May 16, 1836, they were married. The marriage was shaky for a while when Edgar picked up drinking again and fooled around with other women.

In 1838, he decided to try his luck in Philadelphia. He tried other writing and was successful. But as usual things got worse as Virginia started to lose her health. He got a job at a magazine and things started to pick up.

In 1841, he decided to launch his own magazine, The Penn Magazine. It had financial troubles and flopped. Edgar got a job for The Gentlemen's Magazine in an editorial position. Soon the world had its first detective story. "Murders in the Rue Morgue" was published in this year. For the first time Edgar wasn't in any sort of financial trouble. He was making a respectable salary at $800 a year.

But in the middle of January 1842, his wife has a tubercular attack. He started drinking heavily again and was dismissed from the staff of his magazine in May 1842. After he recovered from his breakdown, he started up done again with his own magazine renamed and now called The Stylus. But much of this time he was sick and delirious and was bedridden for seven weeks.

In 1843 he published The Telltale Heart, Lenore, and at the same time The Gold Bug was published in another magazine. He then again developed enthusiasm for his own magazine but once again fell into his drinking habit.

In 1844 he finished writing The Raven and moved back to New York with Virginia. He stopped drinking and Virginia momentarily got better. In early 1845, The Raven was published in The New York Mirror. Over night, Poe's reputation as a writer, as well as a critic, was made.

In February he quit the New York Mirror and joined up with the Broadway Journal. He made enough money to rent an apartment on Broadway. By October he had ownership of the journal.

In 1847 Virginia died from Tuberculosis. She was 24. Edgar broke down completely and was nursed back to health by Mrs. Shew, who had nursed Virginia during her last few months.

In 1848 he met and started courting Helen Whitman, a widow of a young lawyer from Massachusetts. They wrote love poetry to each other, and in September he went to ask her to marry him. But she caught wind that he was also involved with Mrs. Annie Richmond whom he had met when getting subscriptions to The Stylus. She broke off the engagement.

Although sick with headaches after the marriage was called off, he went to work again. He published a few more stories, but his work stresses and rumors circulating about him made him have another break down.

In 1849, he was offered a job at a magazine by a complete stranger. He worked for a while but then broke down and attempted suicide. He went back to Richmond to give a lecture, and while he was there he went to visit Elmira from his college days. She now was rich and they got engaged to be married. But she suspected that he really only wanted her for her money, so she called off the engagement. He broke down again and started drinking. She felt so bad for him that they were again engaged, and the date was set for October of 1849.

Right before the wedding he disappeared and no one knew where he was for 5 days. Someone called his doctor friends and said they had found him outside a bar semi-conscious. He was sent to a hospital. He ranted and raved for another week, and at 5 AM on Sunday, October 7, 1849, Edgar Allen Poe died.

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