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Edgar Alan Poe is born.
Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. An older brother and a younger sister. -
Poe's sister is born
Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. -
Poe's Parents Die
After his Parents died Poe was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe's siblings went to live with other families. His fathers name was David Poe Jr. and his mothers name was Eliza Poe. They were both actors -
Poe writes his first poem
A fifteen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe pens his first known poem: "Last night, with many cares & toils oppres'd,/ Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest." -
Poe enlist in the U.S. Army and shortly after his first book is published
Poe enlists in the U.S. Army under the name "Edgar A. Perry." Shortly after, his first book—a poetry collection entitled Tamerlane and Other Poems—is published. The author is listed only as "A Bostonian." -
Poe's older brother dies
Edgar's older brother Henry dies of either tuberculosis or cholera at the age of 27. -
Poe Marries his 13 year old cousin
Poe—now 27 years old—marries his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, at a ceremony in Richmond, Virginia. -
Poe writes hos first novel
Poe's first novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, is published. -
Poe's story collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque is published in two volumes.
The number of copies printed by the publisher has been given as 750 or 1,750. -
Poe publishes the poem, The Raven
Poe publishes the poem , The Raven in the New York Evening Mirror. It is wildly successful, bringing the writer the fame and fortune that have long eluded him. He soon becomes editor and owner of a magazine called the Broadway Journal, a doomed enterprise that is already in debt when Poe takes over. -
Poe's wife dies
Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx. Poe has been so despondent during the final months of her illness that friends thought he was going insane. The loss of his wife sends Poe into a downward spiral of alcoholism. -
Edgar Allan Poe dies
After being found unconscious in a Baltimore gutter, Edgar Allan Poe is taken to the hospital and pronounced dead of causes still unknown. He is buried at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
