Thesis: The life of the most popular American short stories and poems master of the eighteenth century, Edgar Allan Poe. His life’s path as an extraordinary person and misunderstood writer.
Biography and the writer’s path of Alan Poe
The life of the Edgar Allan Poe as one of the most revered writers in American Literature remains the subject of eternal discussions. The works left after his early death still impress the readers all over the world and will hardly ever stop being so enormously popular. His well-known poems as well as short stories continue to highlight his extraordinary talent and attract with their magnificence. Both critics and readers familiar with Poe’s biography admit that almost all the pieces of his works are much influenced by the circumstances and events that took place in life of the writer.
Childhood years of Alan
Born in Boston on January 19, 1809, Edgar Poe was one of the three children his parents gave birth to. When Alan was a 2 year old child, his mother Elizabeth Arnold died, which is why he was then adopted by the family of a merchant John Allan. Seems like destiny of on Edgar’s side when he was a little boy. He went to a very good school and was brought up in the surrounding of successful people thanks to his foster-father’s status.
Later on, however, at the age of 17 he will start misuse alcohol and quit school a year later. Despite he was very good at both French and Latin languages as well as history and mathematics subjects. What was the reason for such a tragic moment of his early life filled with depression and debts? The facts say it is the greed of his foster-father that played its part, since John Allan didn’t give his ward enough money, though had lots of them.
Poe’s reality in the army
Having no money and experience to find a job, he was literary forced to move to Boston, where he joined the U.S. Army in 1827. As Edgar was a skillful person, it helped him do well in the Army and become a sergeant major. All the years after the future writer quit school, he tried to avoid John Allan in any possible ways. After Mrs. Allan, though, John Allan took attempts to contact Edgar and thus signed Edgar’s application to West Point. Edgar entered West Point as a cadet, but later on had to leave it because John Allan didn’t support him with money.
Literature Master: immortal writer of prose and poetry
Just like any other story of talented writer who tried to find all the ways and be published, the story of Edgar Alan Poe is no different – he was rejected by all the magazines of New York. His financial trouble made him ask for John Allan’s help but there was no answer. Later on the latter will die and leave nothing to Edgar.
Alan found his first job as an editor for the Southern Literary Messenger newspaper as he was lucky to win the contest with the story he wrote called “The Manuscript Found in a Bottle”. He successfully coped with his duties as an editor and managed to increase the circulation of the newspaper’s copies from 500 to 3500. But it didn’t bring him a lot of money, which is why he left his the paper soon.
He continued his writing and published his first short stories “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”, which didn’t bring him money at all though. Some time later he will become a successful editor again but leave the paper again, having a dream to start publishing his own magazine. He managed to make his dream a real but could barely make a living. After this financial failure he became an editor once again – this time it was The Broadway Journal. Seems quite ironic, but the Journal ran out of money and Poe had to look for a job again.
Immortal writer that struggles against life
Sad but true, the life of the most brilliant writer Edgar Alan Poe was not plain. Controversially, it was filled with eternal attempts to make a living and failure on his way. Sure, no doubts it influenced his works, which is felt while reading his stories and poems. The last days of his life were quite mysterious. He was taken to the hospital being without consciousness, but never remembered what happened to him. In four days he died in the hospital. His death is still covered with mysterious reasons and no one ever will know what really happened.