Drawing Lessons - How to Draw the Portrait - Drawing Figure - Drawing Still Life. Bibliomania - Free Online Literature and Study Guides. Classics - A Nerd’s Guide to Reading. Neurotic Poets - Edgar Allan Poe. Personal tragedy was, unfortunately, a recurring theme throughout Edgar Allan Poe's life. Born in Boston in 1809 to actor parents, he never knew his father David Poe, who left his mother and disappeared soon after Edgar was born, then died in Virginia in 1810. His mother, who suffered from tuberculosis (then called consumption), died in Richmond, Virginia in late 1811, orphaning Edgar, his older brother William Henry, and half-sister Rosalie.
Frances Allan of Richmond convinced her wealthy merchant husband John to take the child Edgar into their home. It was here that Edgar was to be raised, with his early influences being the stories of house slaves and the tales told by skippers and sea merchants. The dead and dying would always have a strong hold over Edgar, as demonstrated by the anecdote that a six-year old Edgar was once "seized with terror" as he passed by a local graveyard, convinced that the spirits of the undead would run after him.
By the end of the year, Mr. Table of Contents.