Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809.

Poe's parents, touring actors, both died during his early childhood.

In 1836 he married his young cousin.

Through the next decade, much of which was marred by his wife's long illness, Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals in Philadelphia and New York City.

In 1847 Virginia died and Poe himself became ill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs, recorded by contemporaries, may have contributed to his early death in Baltimore, on October 7, 1849.