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[Music]
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from the very start edgar allan poe's
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life was dramatic and confused
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he was born in boston in january 1809
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the second child of actors david and
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elizabeth poe
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elizabeth poe was the daughter of an
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actress called mrs arnold who had
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apparently learned her craft in the
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theater royal covent garden in london
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for so she was advertised
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when elizabeth arrived from england she
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was nine years old
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her mother teamed up with a man called
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tubbs and soon the young elizabeth took
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part in their productions
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as she grew older and her beauty and
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talent matured she became the star of
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various companies up and down the
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eastern seaboard
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she married another actor mr hopkins in
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1802
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he died in 1805 and almost at once she
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married another actor david poe
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david poe had begun his adult life as a
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law student but gave up his studies to
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go on the stage
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whether his talent merited the move is
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hard to say but the family certainly was
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very poor
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we know little more of david poe except
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that he disappeared in 1810 either he
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died or he ran off with another woman
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elizabeth poe was left in boston with
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two children and expecting a third
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the eldest boy william was adopted by
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relatives but taking edgar along she
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went on working as and where she could
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up and down the country
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apart from the difficulties of her
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pregnancy she was already suffering from
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tuberculosis
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while working in norfolk virginia she
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gave birth to her daughter rosalie and
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had to go on working to support the two
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children
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her last engagement was in the town of
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richmond virginia with its splendid
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state capitol building designed by
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thomas jefferson
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not far away in these simple buildings
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no longer standing elizabeth poe lodged
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for a time and died at the beginning of
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december 1811.
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fortunately she was not without friends
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who were concerned about the plight of
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her children
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she was buried in the churchyard of
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saint john in the upper part of the old
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town
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and two women immediately agreed to
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adopt the children
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edgar went with a mrs francis allen and
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rosalie with mrs allen's friend mrs
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mackenzie
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it was a lucky chance for the two
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children for the families were well off
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and well able to care for them
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francis allen was then 25 married for
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eight years and childless
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it is not hard to believe that she was
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delighted to adopt the attractive
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curly-haired little boy edgar
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she was a good woman and her husband a
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prosperous merchant who owned a part
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share in a large store in the town
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so for edgar poe it was a wonderful
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stroke of luck
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john allen was a scotsman who had
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arrived in virginia about 1795
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at the age of fifteen
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to work as a clerk for his uncle william
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galt a leading merchant of the city
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with gold's help allen eventually set up
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as a merchant with a friend charles
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ellis their business a general store
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pictured here in later years but also a
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substantial tobacco exporting operation
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prospered
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at first the family lived over the shop
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richmond at this time was a thriving
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stable community with fine churches like
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the one in whose yard elizabeth poe was
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buried and an increasingly prosperous
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middle class setting itself up well in
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houses like these
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the allens went to this church known as
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the memorial church it was built to
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commemorate the death of nearly 90
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people who died when the theater which
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used to occupy the spot was burned down
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this happened only a few weeks after
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elizabeth poe's death and of course she
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had often acted in the theater
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poe later remembered the rather
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overbearing preacher pictured in this
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silhouette and the pleasing elegance of
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the social life surrounding the church
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enjoying its status as a seat of
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government richmond had good schools and
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to these the little boy was sent by his
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foster parents mr and mrs allen
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allen had plans to expand his business
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in london and taking his family along
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with him he sailed for england in 1815
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when poe was about six years old
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on arrival in liverpool they went north
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to scotland to visit allen's relatives
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they were well received and an attempt
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was made to settle edgar into school in
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irvine where the allen relatives lived
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although he had a young cousin to study
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with
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when his stepmother went south to london
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he wanted to be there too
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so after about a couple of months
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schooling in scotland
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he went to london
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they settled in bloomsbury in
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comfortable lodgings but the london of
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1815 with the napoleonic wars just over
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was an expensive place and allen's
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business affairs did not prosper
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however he sent edgar to the best
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schools he could find including one in
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the little village of stoke newington to
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the north of the city
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in the manor house school edgar did well
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and his foster father seemed pleased and
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ready to spend the considerable sums
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edgar's schooling required
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back in richmond in 1820 after the
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failure of his english ventures alan was
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almost bankrupt
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with the help of his uncle galt he
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survived
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for edgar it was the best time of his
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life he grew up in every respect he
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became an excellent swimmer for example
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here in the james river pictured today a
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mile or two above the town
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such huge rivers are common in the
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united states but even more astonishing
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are the massive tracts of land crowding
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the shores which are quite undeveloped
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even today
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but in the richmond of poe's youth the
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sophisticated and charming southern
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society was developing a pace and edgar
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allan poe fitted right into it
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jane stannard the beautiful mother of
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one of his school friends lived in the
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large house pictured here at the back of
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the capitol building
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poe developed a passion for her and when
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she suddenly died in 1824 he was
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devastated she inspired one of his
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best-known poems written in later years
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to helen
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he was already at 15 precocious and
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reading and writing poetry
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poe was much loved by his foster mother
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francis allen
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he was still sent to the best of schools
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mixing with the best of society in spite
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of his stepfather's considerable
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financial difficulties however his
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relationship with john allen was never
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an easy one
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alan never formally adopted him in spite
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of his bringing the boy up in the heart
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of his household
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it was always assumed by the outside
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world that alan looked on edgar as his
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son and heir
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a school friend later wrote
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mr allen was a good man in his way but
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edgar was not fond of him
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often when angry with edgar he would
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threaten to turn him adrift
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he never allowed edgar to lose sight of
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his dependence on his charity
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allen was a meticulous person and kept
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all his correspondence
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in one astonishing and revealing letter
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at this time to poe's brother in
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baltimore he says of the young edgar
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the boy possesses not a spark of
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affection for us not a particle of
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gratitude for all my care and kindness
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towards him
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it was a harsh judgment but it makes
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what followed in their relationship
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easier to understand
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of poe's character his boyhood friend
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thomas sully later wrote
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he would never allow the big boys to
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tease me and was kind to me in every way
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i used to admire and envy him he was so
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bright and clever and handsome
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another friend tom ellis wrote there was
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not a brighter more graceful boy in the
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city than edgar allan poe
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how did john allen get it so wrong about
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his foster son
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whatever the reason when edgar was 15
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john allen succeeded to his uncle gold's
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fortune making him one of the first
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citizens of the town
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the rise to riches did not improve his
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relationship with his foster son
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alan bought this house and the prestige
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that went with it
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across the road lived elmira royston 15
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years old beautiful and as it turned out
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sensitive and intelligent
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within months she and poe had
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unofficially become engaged to each
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other and in later years elmira
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confirmed the depth of their feelings
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meanwhile john allen had developed good
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reasons for getting rid of edgar
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allen had an illegitimate son by a
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former mistress and more children by
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another woman
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it is very likely that in a tight
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society like richmond edgar had learned
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about these liaisons and he would
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undoubtedly have been hurt on his
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stepmother's behalf and all too ready to
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accuse alan face to face
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in his newfound eminence alan could not
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afford a scandal with his wife and as
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poe was devoted to francis and full of
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ideals about honor he could not easily
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be kept quiet
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he had to be got rid of
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virginia in the early 19th century was
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very much at the heart of the new united
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states having produced no less than
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three out of the first four presidents
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early in 1825 one of these thomas
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jefferson realized his dream of
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establishing a new university for
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virginia and in the buildings he
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designed teaching began
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in 1826 edgar allan poe joined the new
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intake of 177 students he was 17 and
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bent on being a professional writer
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this idea did not go down well with the
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pleasure-loving young virginian
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gentleman by whom he was surrounded
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art was all very well but it wasn't work
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for a gentleman it was also entirely at
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odds with what john allen wanted of him
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if by now he wanted anything
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students were housed in the hotels that
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lined the green in front of the rotunda
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professors occupied the delightful
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pillared houses in between and much
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thought was given as to how the
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university should be run
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poe eventually settled in this room in
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the block known as west range here poe
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studied and struggled with the problems
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which began to beset him
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from the very first week he got into
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debt because the money john allen had
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given him was not enough to cover the
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initial expenses of the school
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but as alan's son he got credit easily
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enough
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when alan did not send more money poe
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gambled as everyone else did and ran up
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more debts
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not doubting that alan would pay in the
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end he spent freely on clothes and
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entertainments and before long he was
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head over heels in difficulties
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it was from this time that he had a
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reputation for being a drunkard
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something that dogged him for the rest
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of his life
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it seems that in fact very little
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alcohol produced in him disastrous
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effects
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at the end of his first year allen
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brought him home paid the most pressing
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bills and more or less made it clear
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that from then on po would have to fend
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for himself
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it was a dreadful predicament for the
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young man until now used to comfort and
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even luxury and the expectation that
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they would continue
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of course part of allen's plan to
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discredit poe had included breaking off
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relations with elmira
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all his letters to her were intercepted
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when her parents were told poe would not
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inherit allen's wealth they arranged for
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her to marry another man a few months
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later
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having left home and got somehow to
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boston in desperation he joined the army
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as private perry
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within months his good qualities had
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been recognized and he was doing well
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it is strange to find the would-be
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romantic poet in so fundamentally
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unpoetic an organization as the army
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however even as private perry he had
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pursued his poetic ambitions and had his
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first book of poems published in 1827
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tamilan and other poems and it
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established one of the most remarkable
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elements of poe's character namely that
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no matter how he was buffeted about by
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life he kept on writing carefully and
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well
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he was in fact the true professional
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when it came to the work he cared about
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his army career was successful to such
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an extent that he was accepted at west
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point military academy as an officer
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cadet this time under his own name and
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with some signs of support from alan
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whom he continued to write to asking for
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help
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west point sits high on the banks of the
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hudson river 50 miles north of new york
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and is the training ground for the
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officer elite of the u.s army
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at west point poe did surprisingly well
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at first
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at study on parade and even when it came
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to discipline poe seemed to cope and
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almost to thrive
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but his past was still hanging over him
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his foster mother and his greatest ally
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francis allen had died
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surprisingly john allen feeling perhaps
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that the army was not such a bad way to
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keep him out of richmond had sent some
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money to help him
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poe had felt encouraged
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poe might well have continued to enjoy
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alan's support at west point but he had
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unfortunately written a letter to an
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earlier creditor in which he had
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described john allen as
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not very often sober
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this letter had reached alan who was
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about to remarry
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in a fury he broke off all connection
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with poe who then determined to have
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himself thrown out of the army
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a few drinks too many and a few rules
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broken and it was done
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in february 1831 he was dismissed from
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west point
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but a second edition of his poems was
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being published in new york
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124 pages paid for by the subscriptions
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of his fellow students at the academy
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something must have gone right there
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but new york was not the place for him
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poe's life took a new twist
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he turned to his surviving po relatives
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in baltimore
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with them he was to live in the little
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house in amity street and establish his
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reputation as a writer and editor
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in baltimore things all turned around
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this woman maria clem younger sister of
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poe's father david poe
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she had been widowed at 36 and left with
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two children so with poe's grandmother
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and sick brother to care for and now
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edgar she had a lot to cope with
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by 1832 he had managed to get a few
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stories published in local papers
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and it began to be accepted that eddie
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had a career as a writer and would
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eventually make it
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he won small prizes for poetry and
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stories run by local magazines it was
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not much but it was encouragement of
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salts
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alan had meanwhile died and of course
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left him nothing
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poe moved to richmond to take up a job
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as assistant editor of a magazine called
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the messenger
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this was a step up the ladder but his
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progress was affected by a further
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dimension in his life
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in baltimore he had lived with maria
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clem and her little daughter virginia
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for six years
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when he left virginia was 12 years old
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he had already set his heart on
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eventually marrying her
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in richmond poe was told by letter that
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virginia was to go to live with a cousin
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nielsen poe and his wife
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there she would be looked after and
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educated
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it seemed that the rest of the family
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were out to protect her from him
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paul wrote to mrs clem
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the tone of your letter wounds me to the
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soul
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o aunty auntie
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you love me once
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how can you be so cruel now
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you speak of virginia acquiring
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accomplishments and entering into
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society you speak in so worldly a tone
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are you sure should we be more happy
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do you think anyone could love her more
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dearly than i
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my dear auntie i cannot advise you
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ask virginia
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leave it to her
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let me have under her own hand a letter
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bidding me goodbye forever
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and i may die
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my heart will break
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but i will say no more
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for virginia he added my love my own
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sweetest my darling little wifey
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think well before you break the heart of
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your cousin eddie
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it may all be a bit pathetic the
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virginia listened all the same
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at the messenger all was not well
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poe was sacked for being drunk in the
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morning
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there is evidence to suggest that in
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fact poe had an illness such as diabetes
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from which he eventually died and which
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would be severely aggravated by alcohol
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if this is so it goes a long way to
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explain his erratic behavior
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however he sorted things out with his
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employer on the messenger and soon mrs
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clem virginia and poe were settled in a
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house on capitol square in richmond
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the messenger though not paying much
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allowed him scope to make his name and
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under his editorship circulation rose
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from 500 a month to 3500 a month
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on may 16 1836 poe and virginia were
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married
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she was 13 and po 27
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and a bit of arm twisting must have been
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done to persuade the preacher that she
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was legally old enough
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but virginia proved to be the mate poe
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needed and he loved her to the end of
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her short life
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the messenger and opposed guidance had
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quickly come to be recognized as one of
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the best magazines in the states but it
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had gone way ahead of its owner and he
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dismissed poe in january 1837.
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the break was amicable and anyway it was
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time to move on to more demanding
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pastures
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they settled in greenwich village in new
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york and mrs clems started a boarding
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house to help pay the bills
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it did well and edgar worked hard at his
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writing
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he took the short story to new heights
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and produced a level of work never seen
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in america before
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the narrative of arthur gordon pym was
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written at this time
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they moved next to philadelphia and in
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this house some of his best stories were
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written
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he got no more than ten dollars each for
00:21:41
them however until finally in tales of
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the grotesque and arabesque 25 stories
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came out in one volume
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it hardly sold
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and the future looked grim
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poe had always wanted to start a
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magazine of his own and he drew up a
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prospectus for one to be called the pen
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his proposals were of course excellent
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because he knew what he was talking
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about
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a continuous definite character and a
00:22:09
marked certainty of purpose are
00:22:11
requisites of vital importance
00:22:14
but he also wanted
00:22:16
a criticism self-sustained guiding
00:22:19
itself only by the purest rules of art
00:22:23
although he put together a good
00:22:25
subscription list the pen never got off
00:22:27
the ground he was aiming too high and it
00:22:30
was certainly a bad time to start a
00:22:32
business
00:22:37
someone who read the prospectus however
00:22:38
was a young man called george graham
00:22:41
an assistant editor of the saturday
00:22:43
evening post
00:22:44
he wanted a quality magazine and in 1840
00:22:47
bought one called the gentleman's
00:22:50
it had a circulation of 5000 per month
00:22:56
he offered the editorship of graham's
00:22:59
ladies and gentlemen's magazine as he
00:23:01
called it to poe so the family
00:23:03
circumstances changed dramatically
00:23:06
poe now had a reasonable salary and a
00:23:09
chance to work as he wanted under a
00:23:11
sympathetic owner
00:23:13
circulation rose to 25 000 a month by
00:23:16
the end of 1841.
00:23:20
in this house poe enjoyed perhaps the
00:23:22
most stable and agreeable period of his
00:23:25
life
00:23:26
they entertained virginia played and
00:23:28
sang to their guests and poe came to
00:23:31
quickly occupy a real position of
00:23:33
respect among the literary people of
00:23:35
philadelphia
00:23:40
poe was not making a lot of money but he
00:23:42
was stable and in this period he wrote
00:23:44
some of his best criticism and stories
00:23:47
he met dickens who was visiting
00:23:49
philadelphia and obviously impressed him
00:23:51
as the novelist later made efforts to
00:23:53
get poe's work published in england
00:23:59
sadly this stability of philadelphia did
00:24:02
not last long in the midst of his
00:24:04
success virginia fell ill with
00:24:07
consumption and very nearly died
00:24:11
this set him drinking again and by 1842
00:24:14
he had lost his job and began spiraling
00:24:17
down drinking offending people being his
00:24:21
usual oversensitive self
00:24:23
he went to new york
00:24:27
there mrs clem helped him to get a job
00:24:30
as sub editor on the evening mirror and
00:24:32
there once again he had a regular income
00:24:36
he did have a real reputation by this
00:24:38
time so publishers and editors were
00:24:40
ready to buy what he wrote
00:24:44
around this time poe wrote the raven his
00:24:47
best-known poem published in the mirror
00:24:49
on 29th january it was a sensation and
00:24:52
he became a celebrity
00:24:55
he moved to be joint editor of the
00:24:57
broadway journal and everything might
00:24:59
have at last gone well for edgar allan
00:25:02
poe
00:25:03
but as a large part of his work was
00:25:05
literally criticism and he was never
00:25:07
afraid to speak the truth as he saw it
00:25:09
he was soon in hot water boldly
00:25:11
criticizing other writers and drawing
00:25:13
their wrath upon himself
00:25:18
however by sheer chance the broadway
00:25:20
journal increasingly successful under
00:25:22
its new editor was in fact in financial
00:25:25
trouble and the owner sold it to poe for
00:25:27
fifty dollars payable in december of
00:25:29
that year eighteen forty five
00:25:32
at last it seemed he had his own journal
00:25:35
but come december unbelievably he did
00:25:38
not have the money to pay
00:25:40
and he lost it
00:25:45
once again out of work and living in
00:25:48
this little cottage at fordham outside
00:25:50
new york to the north po virginia and
00:25:53
mrs clem struggled
00:25:57
it was too much for virginia and she
00:25:59
died on 30th january 1847
00:26:04
poe was left with only mrs clem to care
00:26:06
for him and the problems he constantly
00:26:08
brought upon himself
00:26:11
it is an indication of how quickly poe's
00:26:14
reputation rose over the 19th century
00:26:17
that this house like several others he
00:26:19
lived in across the country is carefully
00:26:21
preserved for posterity in a new york
00:26:24
park and open as a museum celebrating
00:26:27
his work
00:26:32
poe was still a celebrity if a broken
00:26:34
one and of course he also presented a
00:26:36
very attractive personality to the world
00:26:41
one of the unusual results of this was
00:26:43
that he was often pursued by women eager
00:26:46
to have him praise their literary
00:26:48
efforts
00:26:50
however quite distracted by virginia's
00:26:52
death he set off unaccountably on a
00:26:55
journey to philadelphia
00:26:57
and baltimore
00:26:59
on it he appears to begun drinking he
00:27:02
who could not take even a small amount
00:27:04
of alcohol without being severely
00:27:06
affected by it
00:27:08
he somehow got to richmond and met again
00:27:11
of all people
00:27:12
elmira shelton his boyhood sweetheart
00:27:15
and now a rich widow
00:27:18
he certainly wanted to marry her
00:27:21
but before it went any further he
00:27:22
abruptly left town
00:27:28
he was next found lying in a street in
00:27:30
baltimore suffering from an illness
00:27:32
never quite defined which within a few
00:27:35
days had killed him
00:27:37
mysteriously he was not wearing his own
00:27:40
clothes
00:27:42
mrs clem read of his death in the
00:27:44
newspapers
00:27:46
his end has some of the mysterious
00:27:48
qualities of his own stories which are
00:27:51
the best guide to his character
00:27:56
in edgar allan poe america had its first
00:27:59
truly great imaginative writer
00:28:02
in his own genre of horror and suspense
00:28:05
he remains unmatched and in his
00:28:08
professionalism and high artistic goals
00:28:11
against all odds
00:28:12
he set standards which are his own best
00:28:15
memorial
00:28:18
[Music]
00:29:09
you
