BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF EDGAR A. POE.

THE story of Poe's life is briefly as follows: He was the son of David and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, and was born at Boston in February, 1809. Mrs. Poe died deserted and in poverty at Richmond in December, 1811. Edgar was adopted by Mr. John Allan, a Richmond merchant, who was a kindhearted and indulgent man, the last person in the world who should have had the care of such a child. In 1816 the Allans travelled in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and placed their adopted child at school at Stoke Newington, near London, where, under Dr. Bransby, he remained five or six years, at the end of which time he returned to America and lived again with the Allan family at Richmond, where he continued his studies for three or four years under the best masters that could be obtained. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia, which at that time was a most dissolute place. Poe did not escape the temptations of the place, although the record of his scholarship is good, for he was a more than ordinarily apt pupil. He remained at college from February to December, 1826, spending a large amount of money for Mr. Allan was rich and indulgent to him — and running in debt some two thousand dollars. Most of his

money was lost in gambling, which was a perfect mania with the students of the college.

On leaving the university, he remained with the Allans, and in 1829 published his first book, “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems." It had no great success, and Poe looked about him for a career unconnected with literature. He secured admission as a cadet at West Point; but, learning of his foster-father's second marriage, decided that the army was unfitted for a man who would be independent, took measures, contrary to Mr. Allan's wishes, to get a discharge from the academy, in which efforts he finally succeeded. He was at his wit's end as to what he should do. He had expected to be Mr. Allan's heir, but his adoptive father had now a child of his own; and Edgar's disobedience of his expressed wish, that he should remain at West Point, completely estranged him from Mr. Allan. He published another collection of poems, which was not more successful than the first; and then for a number of years all reliable trace of him is lost, until 1833, when he is again found in Baltimore. The proprietors of the “ Saturday Visitor" offered two prizes, one for the best tale and one for the best poem that should be sent to them. Poe submitted a poem and six prose sketches, and was the successful competitor. He was then very poor, and had been ill, but his fortunes brightened, and his stories in the "Southern Literary Messenger "attracted much attention. In 1835 he accepted an editorial position on the Messenger, and removed to Richmond, where it was published; but in 1837 his connection with the periodical was severed, and about the same time he married his cousin, Virginia Clemm. In 1839 he became editor of Mr. William E. Burton's "Gentleman's Magazine" at a salary of ten dollars a week. It was in this magazine that the finest of his tales,

"The Fall of the House of Usher," first appeared, as also did the strange story "William Wilson." In 1840 his connection with the magazine ceased, and when "Graham's Magazine" was established Poe was the editor, a position which he did not long hold, being succeeded by Dr. Griswold. In 1844 he was employed on the New York "Mirror," shortly afterwards on the "Broadway Journal," and in 1845 on the "American Review," in which "The Raven" appeared. He became editor and proprietor of the "Broadway Journal," which he ran on his principle that "the people love havoc,” and after the death of which, in 1846, he wrote a number of criticisms on the "Literati of New York" for the "Lady's Book," in which his irritable nerves commonly did the work which should have been left to his intellect for its accomplishment; for although many of his expressed views are perfectly correct, the injustice of many of them is apparent on the mere reading, though the reader has never read the writings which gave occasion for them.

The good work that he had done had by this time given him a European reputation sufficiently important to warrant a review of his writings in the "Revue des Deux Mondes," and he was, as Mr. Stoddard says, a celebrity. He was poor, however, not because he did not write well, but partly because of his habits, and mainly because he wrote too well to command prices at all commensurate with the amount of labor he bestowed on his work. For instance, he received ten dollars for "The Raven," and if the price commanded by his other writings was proportionate to this, it may readily be seen why he was poor. While living at Fordham he and his wife were both ill, and in such terrible want that through the kindness of Mr. Willis, then editor of the "Home Journal," a subscription was raised for them which temporarily relieved their embarrassments.

In 1848 his beloved and loving wife, Virginia, died, and he did no work for some time except "Eureka: A Prose Poem,” in which he attempted to solve the problem of the universe, as Griswold perhaps as incompetent a man as ever lived to talk about such matters — says, according to the “exploded theories of The Vestiges of Creation.'" In the same year he lectured in public, delivering a lecture entitled "The Poetic Principle." In 1849 "The Bells" and "Annabel Lee " appeared; and in the summer he left Fordham intending to go to Richmond, but stopped at Philadelphia, where, meeting some of his old companions, he was tempted to drink, spent all his money, and at last, through the kindness of old friends, reached his destination, where, obtaining desk-room at the office of a friend, he engaged in literary pursuits for a while, and then suddenly disappeared to return again and disappear again, his malady of drink ever torturing him and disturbing his best endeavors. He tried to reform, joined a temperance society, lectured on temperance, and was received by the best people of Richmond. Here he met a lady whom he had loved in early life and became engaged to marry her. He started for home to attend to some business matters and fetch Mrs. Clemm, his mother-in-law, to his wedding. He stopped at Baltimore, drank with a friend, was taken from Havre de Grace, a way-station, back to Baltimore, still prostrated by the effects of liquor, of which, delicately constituted as he was, he could not drink a single glass without losing all control over himself. In this state, he fell into the hands of the political harpies known as the “Dead Rabbits,” a society of repeaters. By them he was "cooped," confined in a room at the political headquarters, taken from there through the open streets in the midst of a heavy storm to the various voting offices, and then drugged again, and left exhausted and nearly dead from the exposure.

The effect of this outrage upon his delicate constitution was to bring on a return of the malady from which he had suffered two years before, which in this case, aggravated by the effects of the powerful drugs that had been administered, proved fatal, and he died on the 7th of October, 1849, after an illness of a few days, at the hospital in Baltimore, surrounded by the few relatives and friends who could be notified in season to minister to him in his last moments.