634 POE his profession, and went himself on the stage. The couple led a wandering life for a few years, and died within a> very short time of each oth- er, leaving three young children entirely desti- tute. Edgar, the second child, was a remark- ably bright and beautiful boy, and was adopted by John Allan, a wealthy citizen of Richmond, who had no children of his own. He was edu- cated with great care, and at the age of seven was sent to a school at Stoke Newington, near London, where he remained five or six years. After his return home he resided with the Al- lans at Richmond for three or four years, pur- suing his studies under private tutors. In 1826 he entered the university of Virginia at Char- lottesville, where he excelled in his studies and was always at the head of his class. At the end of a year he quitted the university, deeply involved in debt, chiefly incurred at the gaming table. For a year or two he now remained quietly at home ; the story of his having gone to Greece to fight the Turks has no other foun- dation than the fact that his elder brother, who had gone to sea, got into some trouble with the police at St. Petersburg, from which he was rescued by the American minister. In 1829 Poe published at Baltimore his first volume of poems, "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems," which attracted no attention, and, as his latest biographer, Mr. Stoddard, says, was not "a remarkable production for a young gentleman of 20." Subsequently Poe attempt- ed to make the public believe that he was only 15 when the poems were written. Poe now desired to adopt the army as a profession, and Mr. Allan applied in his behalf to Gen. Scott, Chief Justice Marshall, and other powerful friends, through whose influence a cadetship was procured for him in the military academy at West Point. Here he totally neglected his studies, drank to excess, and was court-mar- tialled and expelled, March 6, 1831. He now published by subscription, the subscribers be- ing chiefly cadets, a new edition of his former volume, to which he added a few new poems. He returned to Richmond, and was again kind- ly received by Mr. Allan, who in the mean time had become a widower and had married a sec- ond wife. To this lady, who was young and handsome, Poe's conduct was such that Mr. Allan was forced to turn him out of doors; and dying soon after, in 1834, he left a will in which Poe's name was not mentioned. Thus thrown upon his own resources, Poe devoted himself to literature for a profession. Failing at first to earn a living by this means, he en- listed as a private soldier. He was soon recog- nized by officers who had known him at West Point, and they exerted themselves to procure his discharge, but he is said to have deserted be- fore the application succeeded. Mr. Stoddard discredits this story, but has not been able to ascertain many facts of Poe's life for the two years following his expulsion from West Point. In 1833, the publisher of a literary journal at Baltimore having offered a prize of $100 for a tale in prose, and the same sum for a poem, Poe became a competitor and won both prizes. John P. Kennedy, one of the committee who made the award, furnished him with means of support and procured him employment as edi- tor of the " Southern Literary Messenger " at Richmond. In this he labored for some time with industry, and wrote many tales and re- views ; but at length his old habits returned, and after a debauch he quarrelled with the pub- lisher and was dismissed. He married while in Richmond his cousin Virginia Clemm, a young girl as destitute as himself, and in Jan- uary, 1837, removed to New York, where he lived preQariously by writing for the periodi- cals, and in 1838 published a fiction entitled " The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym." In 1839 he went to Philadelphia and became edi- tor of Burton's " Gentleman's Magazine." In this post he continued for a year, frequently quarrelling with Burton, who was at length forced to dismiss him. He next became ed- itor of " Graham's Magazine," but in little more than a year quarrelled with the publisher and abandoned his post. He published about this time " Tales of the Grotesque and Ara- besque " (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1840). He next went to New York, where, in February, 1845, he published in the " American Review " the poem of " The Raven," which made him favor- ably known. For a time he was employed by N. P. Willis and George P. Morris as sub-editor of the "Mirror," which post he gave up to be- come associated with Mr. 0. F. Briggs in edit- ing the "Broadway Journal;" but this associ- ation soon ended, and Poe continued the jour- nal to the end of the second volume, when it stopped ; and he was soon reduced to such straits that public appeals for pecuniary aid were made in his behalf by the newspapers. He was living at this time in a cottage at Ford- ham, Westchester co., N. Y. His wife died in January, 1848. In that year he published "Eureka, a Prose Poem," in which he endeav- ored to elaborate a system of cosmogony. In 1849 he went to Richmond, and there formed an engagement with a lady of considerable fortune. The day was appointed for their marriage, and on Oct. 2 he started for New York, to make preparations for his wedding. At Baltimore he met some of his former boon companions, spent a night in drinking, was found in the morning in the street in a state of delirium and taken to a hospital, where he died in a few hours. Poe had an erect and somewhat military bearing, a pale, intellectual face, remarkably brilliant eyes, and a habitually sad expression. His tales have great merit, and exhibit a subtle faculty of analysis, and & wild, sombre, and morbid imagination, with ab- sence of moral sentiment. The most remark- able are "The Gold Bug," "The Fall of the House of Usher," " The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter," "A Descent into the Maelstrom," and " The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." They have been trans-
