Born in poverty at Boston, January 19 1809, dying under painful circumstances at Baltimore, October 7, 1849, his whole literary career of scarcely fifteen years a pitiful struggle for mere subsistence, his memory malignantly misrepresented by his earliest biographer, Griswold, how completely has truth at last routed falsehood and how magnificently has Poe come into his own, For "The Raven," first published in 1845, and, within a few months, read, recited and parodied wherever the English language was spoken, the half-starved poet received $10!
Tarr and Professor Fether"; such bits of extravaganza as "The Devil in the Belfry" and "The Angel of the Odd"; such tales of adventure as "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"; such papers of keen criticism and review as won for Poe the enthusiastic admiration of Charles Dickens, although they made him many enemies among the over-puffed minor American writers so mercilessly exposed by him; such poems of beauty and melody as "The Bells," "The Haunted Palace," "Tamerlane," "The City in the Sea" and "The Raven." What delight for the jaded senses of the reader is this enchanted domain of wonder-pieces!
"No man," Poe himself wrote, "has recorded, no man has dared to record, the wonders of his inner life."
In these twentieth century days -of lavish recognition-artistic, popular and material-of genius, what rewards might not a Poe claim!
Edgar's father, a son of General David Poe, the American revolutionary patriot and friend of Lafayette, had married Mrs.
Bransby, head of the school, whom Poe so quaintly portrayed in "William Wilson." Returning to Richmond in 1820 Edgar was sent to the school of Professor Joseph H.
"While the other boys wrote mere mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy was a born poet.
At the age of seventeen Poe entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.
Allan's death, which occurred in 1829, Poe, through the aid of Mr.
Poe's first genuine victory was won in 1833, when .he was the successful competitor for a prize of $100 offered by a Baltimore periodical for the best prose story.
1835, and January, 1836, being styled "Scenes from Politian: an unpublished drama." These scenes were included, unaltered, in the 1845 collection of Poems, by
Poe. The larger portion of the original draft subsequently became the property of the present editor, but it is not considered just to the poet's memory to publish it.
