Edgar Allan Poe lived a short and difficult life. He only lived to be forty. People he cared about kept dying around him. His stories are believed to have gradually become darker as more and more of the people he loved died. Poe almost never earned anything from his writing. Furthermore, when he lived with his adoptive parents, he was always poor. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. His parents were David Poe and Eliza Arnold. David Poe abandoned his family when Edgar was still a child. His mother died of tuberculosis before he was even three years old. John and Frances Allan became his adoptive parents. They were the ones who added “Allan” as his middle name (Meltzer 23). John Allan was a wealthy tobacco exporter and sent Edgar to some of the best boarding schools. He also attended the University of Virginia when he was sixteen and a half years old. However, he was forced to leave school less than a year later because he was unable to pay his gambling debts. His relationship with John Allan fell apart and he stopped giving him money. In the year 1827, Edgar Allan Poe joined the United States Army. He probably signed up for the money, which he definitely needed. In the same year he published his first booklet, “Tamerlane and other poems”. Unfortunately, he received almost no warning. In the preface Poe states that he wrote the poems when he was only thirteen. Even in the preface we read: “Naturally they were not intended for publication; the reason they are now published is of no concern to anyone but himself.” Surprisingly, Poe never signed himself as the author of the libretto. Instead it was signed as From a Bostonian (The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore). Today only twelve copies of “Tam...... middle of paper ......ter friend, James K. Paulding, who had just been appointed Secretary of the Navy, to find him a job in his department: " anything, by sea or land, to relieve me from the miserable life of literary toil to which I now, heartbroken, submit, and for which neither my character nor my abilities are suited to me." But this, like all his efforts to find work that didn't require writing, failed. Works Cited Claxton, Rebecca. "Poe's 'The Raven'." Wikispaces Classroom. Np, 2013. Web. November 21, 2013. Cole, Diane. “Investigate the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.” US News & World Report 2008: n. page Print."Edgar Allan Poe." Academy of American Poets. Academy of American Poets, 1997-2013. Network. November 20, 2013. Meltzer, Milton. Edgar Allan Poe: A Biography. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group, 2003. Print.