This Day in History: Edgar Allan Poe is born

On 19 January 1809, Edgar Allan Poe, American poet, author and literary critic is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Orphaned at three years old, Poe was brought up by his godfather, John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant. After attending school in England, Poe entered the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1826 but only for eight months, after quarrelling with his godfather over gambling debts. He also served two years in the US Army and won an appointment to West Point, but was dismissed from the academy for rules infractions.
Handsome and brooding, and also a heavy drinker, Poe had published three works of poetry by that time, none of which had received much attention. In 1836, while working as an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. He also completed his first full-length work of fiction, Arthur Gordon Pym, published in 1838.
Having moved to Philadelphia, where he worked as an editor at Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine, he became known for his direct and incisive criticism, as well as for dark horror stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Also around this time, mystery stories such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” earned him a reputation as the father of the modern detective story.  
In 1845, already in New York City, Poe gets spectacular success with his poem “The Raven.” But while working to launch The Broadway Journal, his wife Virginia fell ill and died of tuberculosis in early 1847. Virginia’s death drove Poe even deeper into alcoholism and drug abuse. Becoming later involved with several women, Poe returned to Richmond in 1849 and got engaged to an old flame but found a sudden death before the wedding on October 7, 1849, at age 40.