Edgar Allan Poe -- Write a biography of an author from the Gothic period of literature.

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Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. This man created some of the most influential literary criticism of his time. Poe's parents were David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. They both died before he reached the age of 3. He was then taken into John Allan's custody as a foster child. John Allan was a very prosperous and rich merchant in Richmond Virginia. When he took in Poe, he had him baptized. Poe's life as a child was boring to say the least, though he went to school for 5 years in England. Six years later he entered the University of Virginia, but only stayed for a year. Although he was an excellent student, he was a gambler, and not a very good one at that. He ran his debts up, so he left never to return. In the process, he broke off his engagement with Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart.

He had lacked support after this, so he turned to the army. Although he was broke, he had already written and printed his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, all at his own expense. While Poe was temporarily reconciled, Allan secured his release form the army and his appointment to West Point Academy, but refused to provide him with funds. But after only six months Poe has been dismissed for disobeying orders. Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself. In 1832, the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories and in 1833, MS. Found in a Bottle won a $50 prize given by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835, and...