Edgar Allen Poe 6 Essay, Research Paper

Edgar Allen Poe is an artist I admire. I found his work very interesting because of the life he led. Throughout Edgar Allen Poe’s life, many factors have contributed and influenced his writing style. He lived a difficult life, because he was raised in a dysfunctional household. This is not the main factor to his writing style, but it is a main factor in the understanding of Poe. I think Poe fs childhood affected his work a lot.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809; he grew up in Richmond, VA. He moved around a lot during his childhood. Both of his parents were actors. Edgar was the second of three children of the couple. Edgar fs older brother was left with relatives because his parents were unable to care for all of them because of their health. Edgar and was adopted by Frances Allen the wife of a wealthy merchant. Another family took in his younger sister. Edgar was two years old at the time of his adoption. His stepfather was not too happy with his wife adopting a son but he supported the child despite his feelings. When Edgar was five years old the family moved to Scotland for six years. When he was eleven years old when his family moved to Richmond, VA.

Edgar fs stepfather was very hard on him through out his childhood. He was very wealthy businessman who disliked adopting him but did want to educate Edgar properly. He sent him to an English and classical school when he was a teenager. Then Edgar was sent to the university of Virginia. Edgar was fond of this because he finally got a chance to get away from his tough and strict stepfather.

At this time Poe was very disturbed young man so he turned to alcohol for answers. He was also an addicted gambler. Edgar gambled up a debt he could not pay. His stepfather being embarrassed because of Edgar fs actions pulled him out of the university. Edgar was put to work in one of his stepfathers many businesses. He was unhappy doing this so he left to Boston. There he managed to publish a few poems he wrote about his life. Then he joined the army under a fake name. He was rejected because he was not old enough. A year later he tried again and made it this time. He was doing very well for a while. Then he started slacking off and stopped going to drills and meetings. He was released from the army; his stepmother had died at this time. His stepfather soon remarried and wanted nothing to do with his troublesome stepson.

Edgar lived in Baltimore for a while with his biological aunt. She was poor and had a little place for her and her daughter. During this time Edgar started writing and publishing many poems and short stories. All of them were about the way he felt of what he thought was his pointless life. In 1833, Poe entered in several newspaper contests, which he won. A well-established novelist John P. Kennedy was one of the judges. He found Poe fs work interesting so he tried to help him out. Kennedy gave Poe a job in a local magazine as part of the editorial staff. Poe worked hard and soon became the editor of the magazine. He published many of his own works in the magazines.

Poe married his cousin after getting the job. But he had a very big drinking problem, which got him fired from many jobs. He finally got a stable job at a New York newspaper. But due to his big drinking problem his family still remained poor. As time passed he became a very famous writer across the country but had nothing to show for it. Due to the poor living conditions his aunt and wife were not able to live without getting sick. Later that year they both died. Poe grew very depressed after this and drank a lot. He wrote one more story before dieing himself in1849. It was called gEureka h; he explained it was the expression of profound truth.

I think Poe led a very sad and miserable life for such a great and talented writer. Poe fs strict childhood, unsuccessful college and military career all made up his drinking problem. The drinking problem was not good but it influenced all his work into being dark and mysterious works of art. At the end when his wife and aunt died this was it for him he could not take any more pain in his life. He drank and wandered from city to city until he died. Although Poe did not live a glamorous life like other artists, he did have great works of art, which is still talked about.