Poe as writer and Poe as a literary character are often woven together in people's imaginations. We won't dwell on the biography, but those of you whose interests run toward the psychoanalytic will find ample material in Poe, and much of the criticism on Poe does take this approach. Briefly, Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, to actors Eliza Poe and David Poe, Jr. His mother was a rising star and his father a failure who deserted the family when Edgar was about two years old. His mother died during a theatrical tour a year later at the age of 24, probably with her children present, according to one of Poe's biographers, Kenneth Silverman.

Poe was raised by a childless couple named John and Fanny Allan, who never formally adopted him and who did not provide him with much warmth. When Poe entered the University of Virginia in 1826, it brought on a serious rift with John Allan. Poe did well in school, but was younger than the other students and had trouble with the various temptations towards dissolution that tempted a young university student--especially alcohol. He left after one year, owing two thousand dollars in debts from gambling and other miscellaneous expenses. He left the Allan home in March 1827. He served in the army, briefly reconciled with Allan and was admitted to West Point, but left it after Allan remarried and wrote him saying that he wanted "no further communication" with Poe. Poe stopped using Allan as part of his name, publishing under the name "Edgar A. Poe."

Poe settled with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and her nine-year-old daughter Virginia in Baltimore. He fell in love with Virginia, and when she was 13 they took out a marriage license and may have been privately married then. In January 1842 she contracted tuberculosis, which killed her in 1847.

Poe tried to find a new wife--often courting more than one woman at once. He may have tried to commit suicide. He was drinking heavily, though, and had a pass of illness and delusions. Then, perhaps to impress his prospective bride, he joined a temperance society and made a public pledge against alcohol. He left Richmond on September 27, 1849 to settle his affairs in New York, but on October 3 he was found in a Baltimore bar, raggedly dressed and only semiconscious. Hospitalized, he began to rave. He died on October 7, 1849.1

Poe's life has given him something of a bad reputation. He contributed to this as well, for example fostering legends that he had gone off to join the Greeks who were fighting for liberty. But he was also assisted by Rufus Griswold, who after Poe’s death worked to destroy Poe’s reputation, even rewriting Poe’s letters so that Poe’s friends would think that he’d said nasty things about them behind their backs.

Our discussion will not focus on Poe’s biography. Rather, we’ll be considering how Poe addresses many of the issues we’ve been discussing. For example, we’ve talked a great deal about the self. How does Poe represent the self in his stories? How, for example, might you compare the self in "William Wilson" with the self in "Self-reliance"? What does "The Imp of the Perverse" suggest about the basic human instinct? (Consider the form of "The Imp of the Perverse" as well. What gen How do Poe’s views of human perception compare with Emerson’s and Whitman’s? What’s the relationship between dream and reality in "Ligeia," for example?