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by Lloyd C. Sanders, 1887
Poe’s biography from a reference book published in 1887. Some minor mistakes (Poe's grandfather was the general, not his father) and ends with a negative appraisal of his poetry.
Poe, Edgar Allan (b. 1809, d. 1849), an American poet, who was the son of General Poe, a scapegrace, who was distinguished for his services in the War of Independence; his mother was an actress who had figured in the playbills as “the beautiful Miss Arnold.” He inherited his grandfather’s pride and his father’s tendency to vagaries in conduct. Both his parents died in his infancy, and he was adopted by a Mrs. Allan, the wife of a Scotchman resident in Richmond, who had enriched himself in the tobacco trade. Mrs. Allan had no children of her own, and grew passionately fond of the precocious and beautiful boy; but her husband seems to have regarded her inclination as a caprice. He was put to school in England at the age of seven years, and ten years later entered the University of Virginia, where he remained but one year, when he retired on account of gambling debts, which Mr. Allan refused to pay. The latter would not even continue the support of Poe at the University, but proposed a desk in the counting-house instead. Poe regarding himself as wronged and oppressed, left Mr. Allan’s home, and went to Boston. His first enterprise there was to publish a little volume (1827) entitled Tamerlane , and Other Poems. Tamerlane was not a success, and Poe enlisted in the United States army. Mrs. Allen died while he was a soldier, and Mr. Allan, moved by consideration of his wife's fondness for the lad, aided in the effort to procure his discharge from the service and his appointment as a military cadet. He entered West Point July 1st, 1830, but was dismissed in his first year for deliberate neglect of duty, and naturally received no more support from Mr. Allan. In 1831 he published Al Aaraaf, and Other Poems. In this collection were the lines to Helen--verses since noted as the best early evidence of the author's genius. Al Aaraaf is the name of the limbo or purgatory of the Mahometans, but the poem had no relation to any suggestion involved in the name. It is a mere rhapsody of feeble lines without any perceptible coherence of its parts. Poe was now dependent absolutely upon his own efforts. Penniless, solitary, proud, sensitive, without knowledge or capacity for any money-making occupation, he could only turn with very little hope to literature. In 1833 a publisher offered two prizes--one of one hundred dollars for a tale, and one of fifty dollars for a poem. Poe competed with a whole collection of tales, and the prize was awarded to his Manuscript Found in a Bottle. He would have gained the prize for the poem also, but the terms were against the capture of both prizes by one author. With one hundred dollars in ready money he was rich. But this success had an even more substantial value. It procured him the friendship of "his first true friend," Mr. Kennedy, the author of Swallow Barn. Through this gentleman he obtained a regularly remunerative occupation as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1835 Poe married his cousin, Virginia Clemm. His relations with the owners of the Literary Messenger were closed in consequence of his incapacity to restrain himself from drink. He removed to New York in the hope to find there some adequate occupation. He published at this time the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, a tale of adventure and mischance, written with a minute accuracy of detail in the expectation that it would pass as a recital of actual experiences. In 1839 he was employed by Mr. Burton, the comedian, as editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, a Philadelphia periodical, but the employment ended abruptly in a quarrel. Poe's next employment was upon Graham's Magazine, another Philadelphia periodical. Nearly all the Philadelphia periodicals of that time were of the same quality--they were magazines for young ladies filled with love stories of the Rosa Matilda order, occasional poems, and a little light criticism, and illustrated with an engraving on steel and a French fashion plate. But the public had taste to appreciate much better material than the periodicals supplied, and Graham's Magazine attained great vogue through Poe's contributions. He subsequently contributed to Godey's Lady's Book--a magazine of the same class--a series of articles on the literary merits of his contemporaries, entitled The Literati. These were criticisms mainly in the slashing style, and naturally made Poe very unpopular among literary men. His tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque were published in 1840, and his beautiful little poem, The Raven, in the American Review in 1845. Poe entered in New York upon various enterprises in periodical literature, but could barely live by his labour. His wife died in 1847, the victim of misery and chagrin. He published Eureka: A Prose Poem, a speculative rhapsody on the universe, in 1848, and was in want at the time. In 1849 he seemed upon the threshold of a happier future. He was about to marry again, and this time a lady of fortune. One a journey he stopped at Baltimore, and meeting some former comrades they celebrated his prospects with such success that Poe was taken to the hospital, where he died the next day. His stories, collected under the title of Tales of Mystery, Imagination, and Humour, are noted for their constructive ingenuity. They begin generally at the limit of possibility and move the other way. The mots popular of them are the Gold Bug and the Murders in the Rue Morgue. His poetry has been regarded by some enthusiastic admirers as without equal in the literature of his own country, but others decry it. The difference of opinion is easily intelligible. Few writers have so little thought in their verses. There is not a passage that is quotable for its intellectual quality of for any effect but its music. With this poverty of thought he combines a music and a rhythmical dexterity hardly to be found in any writer of the English language.
