. The library of American history, literature and biography .. . desolate paths of dream where fancys owl Sent long lugubrious hoots through sombre air,Amid thoughts gloomiest caves he went to prowl And met delirium in her awful lair. Edgar Poe was born in Boston February 19th, 1809. His father was a Mary-lander, as was also his grandfather, who was a distinguished Revolutionary soldierand a friend of General Lafayette. The parents of Poe were both actors who touredthe country in the ordinary manner, and this perhaps accounts for his birth inBoston. Their home was in Baltimore, Maryland. When
. The library of American history, literature and biography .. . desolate paths of dream where fancys owl Sent long lugubrious hoots through sombre air,Amid thoughts gloomiest caves he went to prowl And met delirium in her awful lair. Edgar Poe was born in Boston February 19th, 1809. His father was a Mary-lander, as was also his grandfather, who was a distinguished Revolutionary soldierand a friend of General Lafayette. The parents of Poe were both actors who touredthe country in the ordinary manner, and this perhaps accounts for his birth inBoston. Their home was in Baltimore, Maryland. When Poe was only a few years old both parents died, within two weeks, inRichmond, Virginia. Their three children, two daughters, one older and oneyounger than the subject of this sketch, were all adopted by friends of the John Allen, a rich tobacco merchant of Richmond, Virginia, adopted Edgar(who was henceforth called Edgar Allen Poe), and had him carefully educated, firstin England, afterwards at the Richmond Academy and the University of Virginia,3i6. poes IaSi- h)oroe, I EDGAR ALLEN POE. O^? and subsequently at West Point. He always distinguisherl himself in his studies,but from West Point he was dismissed after one year, it is said because he refused tosubmit to the discipline of the institution. In common with the custom in the University of Vir<i;inia at that time, Poeacquired the habits of drinking and gambling, and the gambling ilebts which hecontracted incensed Mr. Allen, who refused to pay them. Tliis brought on thebeginning of a series of quarrels which finally led to Poes disinheritance and per-manent separation from his benefactor. Tlius tuined out upon the cold, unsympa-thetic world, without business training, without friends, without money, knowingnot how to make money—yet, with a proud, imperious, aristocratic nature,—we havethe beginning of the saddest story of any life in literature—struggling for nearlytwenty years in globm and poverty, with
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Keywords: ., bookauthormabieham, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1904
