Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849

Abstract

Abstract While the nation’s capital awaited the inauguration of James Madison as fourth president of the United States, Edgar e was born in Boston, on January 19, 1809, the second son of actor David Poe Jr. and actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. David Poe Sr., Edgar’s paternal grandfather, was of Irish American stock and had been a major in the American Revolution, serving as assistant deputy-quartermaster general for Balti more. Of English origin, Eliza came to America in 1796 with her mother, also an actress. Nine months after Edgar’s birth, hard drinking David Poe made his last theatrical performance, and he apparently abandoned his family soon after the birth of daughter Rosalie in December 18IO. Presumably he died of consumption (tuberculosis) a year later. Entrusting her elder son, Henry (b. 1807), to the care of relatives in Baltimore, Eliza Poe—a favorite with audiences—struggled valiantly to sustain her theatrical career in Charleston, Norfolk, and Richmond with two small children in tow. In failing health she made her final stage appearance in Richmond on October u, 18u; she died there of consumption on December 8. Orphaned by two itinerant stage per formers, Poe in later life sometimes tried to obscure his humble origins, although he faithfully preserved a locket containing a miniature painting of his mother.