Biographie d'Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe, in his short, troubled life, originated the mystery story, brought new psychological depth to the tale of horror, and made inimitable contributions to Romantic poetry and literary criticism. Yet bad luck, pride, and a difficult temperament kept him in a lifelong struggle with poverty and illness. Born in Boston in 1809 to itinerant actors, Poe was or- phaned as an infant and sent to live with a Richmond merchant, John Allan.
Allan sent him to the University of Virginia in 1826, but Poe withdrew because of gambling debts. In 1830, with his first book of poems already published, he entered West Point but was dishonorably discharged the next year, and his relationship with Allan, always stormy, broke off completely. In the next five years Poe's stories began to be published and praised, and Poe grew close to a young cousin, Virginia Clemm.
In 1835 Poe was chosen editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married Virginia, listing her age as twenty-one ; she was actually thirteen years old. The family—Poe, his bride, and her mother—moved to Philadelphia and then New York. Contributing to a newspaper and editing magazines, Poe eked out a marginal living while publishing dozens of his stories and poems. He was a combative but brilliant editor, yet he never received adequate pay for his accomplishments.
He was already established as an author when, in 1845, the publication of "The Raven" made him famous. He began his own magazine, Broadway Journal. But in 1846 the magazine went bankrupt, and in 1847, after years of suffering, Poe's wife died of consumption. His ill health and drinking worsened. In October 1849 he was found semiconscious outside a polling place in Baltimore ; a few days later he died without regaining consciousness.
Ignored for the most part by his countrymen, he was idolized by the French Symbolists, who thought of him as the first modern poet and helped to win him the recognition that he is now regarded to have deserved.
