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Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849)

Editor, Essayist, Literary Critic, Poet, Short Story Writer

Often credited with inspiring the Pfaff's Bohemians, Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the army on May 26, 1827 under the name Edgar A. Perry. He received an appointment to West Point and entered the Military Academy on July 1, 1830 but was later dismissed after neglecting his duties. Poe received his first recognition as a writer in 1833 when he won a prize of $50 in the Baltimore Saturday Visitor for his story, "A MS. Found in a Bottle." This prize opened an opportunity for him at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, where he eventually joined the paper's staff. Although Poe was an "inspired" editor, and his literary, critical, and poetical works increased the circulation of the paper, he was dismissed from his position after he had begun drinking to ward off melancholia. Poe returned to Baltimore, where he married his thirteen year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, and after promising not to drink, Poe was reinstated at the Messenger where he published eighty-three reviews, six poems, four essays, and three stories over the course his tenure.

In January 1837, Poe moved to New York, where he had difficulty obtaining work and finding a venue for the publication of his writings, leaving his family in extreme poverty. Poe moved to Philadelphia in 1838, a time during which he began a correspondence with Washington Irving, who offered Poe criticism on his work. Beginning in January 1840, Poe published his "The Journal of Julius Rodman" in serial form in Burton's and, at the end of 1839, his sixth bound work Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published. These two volumes contain several of Poe's best-known works. Also while in Philadelphia, Poe began his efforts to "perfect the mystery story," in the form of works such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery of Marie Roget," and "The Gold Bug." After winning a prize of $100 for "The Gold Bug" and publishing a few other stories, Poe left for New York in April 1844, arriving in the city with $4.50 in his pocket.

In New York, Poe began to freelance again, with the "Balloon Hoax" published in the Sun and "The Raven" published anonymously in the New York Evening Mirror. A signed version of the poem was published in the New-York Mirror one month later. The success of the poem led to N.P. Willis's hiring Poe to do editorial work for the New-York Mirror. From the New-York Mirror, Poe began working at the Broadway Journal with Charles F. Briggs, who had connections with several Pfaffians as a publisher, in 1845. Briggs left his position in June 1845 putting Poe in charge. Poe became proprietor of the paper in October 1845, having borrowed the money to purchase it. He used the paper to publish and re-print several of his own poetic, prose, and critical works, which increased his literary reputation in New York and gained him admittance to the best literary circles of the city. Poe was forced to give up the Broadway Journal in January 1846 due to his poor health, his wife's illness, his financial difficulties, and his escalating dissipation. Three years later, Poe died on October 7th and was eventually buried in the churchyard of Westminister Presbyterian Church (H. Allen).

Poe's memory loomed large in New York after his death and, while he was not alive during the Bohemian era at Pfaff's, several of the Pfaffians were inspired or influenced by him. Eugene T. Lalor describes Poe as "the spiritual guide of Bohemia" (21) and David S. Reynolds names him the "patron saint" of the Pfaff's Bohemians (378). Louis M. Starr speculates that the first Bohemian movement in America at Pfaff's "resurrected Edgar Allan Poe, less, one suspects, for his art (although Fitz-James O'Brien at his macabre best emulated Poe superbly) than because Poe had lived dissolutely, died spectacularly, and hated Boston" (5). In Old Friends William Winter notes that despite Poe's fame for criticizing his New York literary peers as "The Literati," he was also able to recognize young talent. Most notably, Poe is credited as the "first authoritative voice to recognize Bayard Taylor; hailing him in 1849, as 'unquestionably the most terse, glowing, and vigorous of our poets'" (Winter 296). Overall, while Poe died long before Pfaff's started, he was connected to many of the people who became involved in the group and served as an inspiration for many of them in their own work.