Edgar Allan Poe, Utterly Mysterious

Edgar Allan Poe: Life Sucks and Then You Die

Edgar Allan Poe, only days after his suicide attempt, 1848

Poe was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, in the city of Boston. His parents, David and Eliza were actors that travelled a circuit along the Eastern seaboard. His mother performed a week before his birth and would return again to the Boston stage a month later, which is indicative of the economic stability of Poe’s family. David Poe had abandoned a career in law to try and achieve his wife’s level of dramatic success. That he was unable to do so became a source of frustration and anger that eventually ended the marriage. He disappeared and was dead by 1811. Eliza took her three young children to Richmond where she would contract tuberculosis and also die in 1811, on December 8.

Virginia Clemm Poe, the only likeness of Poe's wife that exists. — Virginia Clemm Poe, the only likeness of Poe’s wife that exists.

On May 16, 1836 Poe married Virginia Clemm. The groom was twenty-seven, the bride, fourteen. The specifics regarding when and if Poe enjoyed a physical relationship with his young cousin is a matter of dispute. It is widely believed that initially Poe and his wife’s relationship was platonic in nature but as she grew older their relationship became more typically romantic. That they were emotionally close and that Virginia Clemm practically idolized her husband has never been disputed.

Poe and Maria Clemm remained in the Bronx, and 1847 started off reasonably well when he prevailed in a libel suit that provided a few hundred dollars. But Poe would write very little in 1847, depressed, distracted and his own health now deteriorating.

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Edgar Allan Poe, Utterly Mysterious