Edgar Allan Poe

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Date of Birth: January 19, 1809
Date of Death: October 7, 1849
Birthplace: Boston, MA
Education: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, February 14, 1926-December 15, 1926.
Profession: Sergeant Major, U.S. Army, (under name Edgar A. Perry), 1827-29; Assistant editor, The Southern Literary Messenger, Richmond, VA, 1835-37; Assistant editor, Gentleman's Magazine, Philadelphia, PA, 1839-40; Editor, Graham's Magazine, 1841-42; Editor/proprietor, Broadway Journal, New York City, 1845-46; Lecturer, Lowell, MA; Providence, RI; Richmond, VA, 1848-49.
Influences, Interests and Interesting Tidbits: The circumstances of Poe's death remain a mystery. After a visit to Norfolk and Richmond for lectures, he was found in Baltimore in horrible condition and taken unconscious to a hospital where he died. He was buried in the yard of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

"To sum up this long rigmarole, I have, dear B—, what you no doubt perceive, for the metaphysical poets, as poets, the most sovereign contempt. That they have followers proves nothing— No Indian prince has to his palace more followers than a thief to the gallows."
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1931

Lord help my poor Soul!
-Edgar Allan Poe's last words, recorded by Dr. John J. Moran in Baltimore on Sunday, October 7, 1849

What the world calls genius is the state of mental disease arising from the undue predominance of some one of the faculties. The works of such genius are never sound in themselves and...always betray the general mental insanity.
-Edgar Allan Poe in his essay, Genius and Madness

You have formed a correct estimate of Poe's characterless character. He cannot conceive of anybody's doing anything, except for his own personal advantage....He looks upon all reformers as madmen.... His presumption is beyond the liveliest imagination. He has no reverence for Homer, Shakespeare, or Milton....The Bible, he says, is all rigmarole.
-Charles B. Briggs, (1804-1877)—Poe's former partner, Broadway Journal—in a letter to poet James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)