Known today as the father of detective stories and the perfecter of the psychological thriller, Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his poetry and short fiction. Many say he deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short story from anecdote to art. But what inspired these great works of art? What led him to write such brilliant yet terrifying accounts? Edgar Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. He was the son of an English-born actress, Elizabeth Arnold Poe, and David Poe Jr., an actor from Baltimore. After the death of his mother, he was taken into the home of John Allan, whose name he incorporated with his own, and his wife. .
From 1815 to 1820, Poe attended a school in England. In 1826, after the Allan's moved back to America, he entered the University of Virginia. Although a good student, he ran up large gambling debts that Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented his return to the university and broke off Poe's engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart. Lacking any means of support, Poe enlisted in the army. On the death of his foster mother, John Allan bought Poe's release from the Army and got him into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It was right before entering the school that Poe published his first book of poetry, titled Tamerlane and Other Poems. He sought expulsion from the school and got just that after not attending for a week. .
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. For the next few years, his only bit of luck was winning a $50 prize offered by the Baltimore Saturday Visiter for a story, which he won with "A MS. Found in a Bottle. " .
Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and married Virginia, who was not yet 14 years old.