The Edgar Author Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born on 19th January 1809 in Boston, U.S.A., the son of travelling actors, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. He had a brother, Henry, and a sister, Rosalie. His father abandoned the family when the children were very young; when Edgar was only three, his mother died of tuberculosis, becoming the first in a long list of Poe s loved ones who were to come to this tragic end. Allan was only added to his name after the orphaned children were separated and Poe was sent to live with a wealthy tobacco merchant and his wife, John and Francis Allan, in Richmond, Virginia. He grew up as a young gentleman, and spent five years in England and Europe with his new family. However, as he grew up, it became clear that he was not interested in going into his foster father1 s business and tensions built up between them, because Allan did not approve of Edgar s love of poetry and writing. Consequently, he provided little money and Poe got into heavy debt from gambling2 while at university. In 1827, Edgar left home to seek adventure and a life in poetry, making Allan very angry. He began well by getting his first book of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems, published in the same year, when he was just eighteen. He went on to write a vast number of poems, essays, short stories, textbooks, reviews, a novel and became America s first great literary critic, as well as becoming a legend in his own right. He also wrote and edited articles for magazines and dreamed of owning his own. Poe began his literary career by winning a short story contest in the 1. foster father: a man who brings up a child as a father, in place of the natural or adoptive father. 2. gambling: playing games (e.g. cards) for money. 4