Otázka: Allan Edgar Poe
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): Monika
Allan Edgar Poe (1809-1845)
He liked to write about dark themes. His life was almost as dark as his writing.
Childhood days
Alan Edgar Poe was born in 1809 in Boston. When he was one year his father left the family, and a year later his mother died of tuberculosis. So Poes was sent to live with a foster family named Allan in Richmond. (It was from this family that Poe took his middle name. The Allan family was rich so Poe spent his childhood living the easy life. When Poe was 17 Mr Allan sent him to the University of Virginia.
Army career
But Poe started a drink and gamble and he quickly got into debt. Before the year was over the university asked Poe to leave. Because he was very poor he joined army. He was making enough money and after two years he reached a high rank. Later he study at US military academy, but he stayed there only one year.
Becoming a writer
And so he went to live to Baltimore, where he lived with a relative. He wanted to be a full time writer. In the past only rich people wrote novels and poem, but Poe decided to be one of the first professional writers in America.
People loved his spooky stories and poems, but he never had enough money to live on, because he spent a lot on alcohol. When Poe won a competition, he finally got a job as an editor for a literary magazine. But he lost it because he all the time drunk at work.
Married man
Poe married beautiful young women, she was 13 years old and she was his cousin. But marriage was a happy. Poe gets his job back promising his boss never to drink at work again.
Bad times
In 1845 his wife was diagnosed tuberculosis and Poe began drinking more and more. But in this time Poe wrote some of his greatest works – Annabel Lee, The Raven
The last mystery
One day Poe was found lying in the street. He was unable to walk or tell anyone what had happened. He was taken to the hospital where he died four days later. He only mentioned the name “Reynolds”. We don´t even know the cause of his death.
