Text: Richard Beale Davis, “Birth, Life and Death,” Chivers' Life of Poe 1952, pp. 34-38

[page 34:]

BIRTH, LIFE AND DEATH(29)

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 1811.°

His father, David Poe, named after his grandfather, who was a quarter-master General in the Maryland Line during the Revolution and an intimate friend of the great La Fayette, was a student of law in Baltimore when he became acquainted with Miss Elizabeth Arnold, an Actress, with whom he eloped, and, after marying [sic] her, became an Actor himself. Having performed six or seven years together in the principal Cities of the Union, they, at length, died in a few days of each other, in Richmond, Virginia, leaving behind them three orphan children — Henry, Edgar and Rosalie.

John Allan (from whom he received his middle name) a wealthy Merchant of Richmond, and friend of his parents, adopted him as his son, an [sic] sent him to school to a widow Lady in that City, where he remained but a very short time.

When he was about seven years of age he was taken by Mr Allan to England, and left at school at Stoke Newington, near London, under the tuition of the Rev. Dr Bransby.

At this school he remained until 1822, when he returned to the United States. After having studied but a short time in the Academy in Richmond, he entered the University at Charlottesville, where he remained only as short a time.

A little after this he left the United States again with the intention to join the Greeks then fighting against the Turks; but proceeded no farther than St. Petersburg, where, after having spent all his money, by the assistance of our late [page 35:] Minister, Henry Middleton, of South Carolina, he returned home again.

A little while after this, through the instrumentality of Chief Justice Marshall and General Scott, he was entered as a Cadet in the Military Academy at West Point, where he, at once, became a favorite with the Professors; but did not remain there long before he returned again to Richmond.

Not long after his return from West Point, he published in Baltimore a small Volume of Poems containing Al Araff [sic], Tamerlane, &c.

In 1834 the Premium offered for the best Poem, by the Proprietor of the Baltimore Saturday Visitor [sic], was awarded to him.

In 1835, he became the Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, but recently established by Mr T. W. White, where he remained until 1837, when he retired from it.(30)

It was while he was living in Richmond,(31) that he married his cousin Virginia Clemm, a beautiful, gentle, amiable and lovely young creature, who was of all the persons [in] the world, the most unfit to be the wife of a man of his habits. Her life consisted in an unromantic attachment of real and actual love; His in an unsophisticated, unimpassioned, romantic [page 36:] wild goose chase after phantoms and unrealities which had no relish of salvation in them. This [broke her heart].(32) Like the delicate and tender Ivy that has no pillar to cling to — so she fell away from the Tree of Life, around whose branches woman must fix her tendrils or perish — and faded away from the earth forever — long before her time.

From Richmond he went to Baltimore, from Baltimore to Philadelphia, and, finally, to New York [.] In 1839, he became the Editor of The Gentleman's Magazine, established, in Philadelphia, by Mr Burton, the Comedian.

About this time, I believe in the Autumn of the year, he published all the prose Tales that he had ever written, in two volumes, entitled Grotesque and Arabesque°. No title was ever more appropriate.

He continued the Editor of this Magazine for only one year, when he took it into his head to establish a Magazine of his own, to be called The Penn Magazine.

In 1840 Burton's Magazine became merged in The Casket, owned by George R. Graham, under the title of Graham's Magazine, when Poe became the Editor. With this magazine, he remained about one year and a half, when he(33) recurred to the original idea of establishing a Magazine of his own to be called, not The Penn Magazine, but The Stylus; but made no overt step on the premises.

In 1848, he wrote the Story of the Gold Bug°, for which he received the prize of a hundred dollars. This was the Golden Age of Poe's Literary life. But, like the Dove which Noah sent out of the Ark to find dry ground, there appeared never to be any resting-place for the soles of his feet — therefore, he never brought back in his beak any [page 37:] Olive leaf of Peace. In 1844, Poe removed to New York. It was in this City that I first became personally acquainted with him.(34)

Soon after his arrival in this City, he was engaged by Willis and Morris to become the Editor of The Mirror, where he remained about six months, when he became associated with Charles F. Briggs and Henry C. Watson° in the publication of a Literary Magazine intitled The Broadway Journal. In March, 1845, he delivered a Lecture, at the Society Library, on the American Poets, which, from what I can learn, gave general dissatisfaction. In the Autumn of this year, he accepted an invitation to deliver a Poem before the Members of the Boston Lyceum. It was his desire on this occasion, to deliver a Poem something similar to The Raven, but, as he had no original rhythm out of which to “hammer it,” as in the case of The Raven, he had no other alternative but to fall back on the “Juvenile Poem[“] called AL AARAAF.

In January, 1846, the Broadway Journal died. In the same year he wrote Lines of Criticism entitled The New York Literati, which were published in Gody's Lady's Book.(35)

In this year, °agreeably to my suggestions, he went to Fordham, a little place, on the Railroad, fourteen miles from New York, to reside. There he suffered not only from poverty but considerable mental disquietude, as his(36) letters(37) to me during that time, will show.

It was while he was residing here, that his wife died.

On [the] 9th day of February, 1848, he delivered a Lecture before the Society Library, which was afterwards published [page 38:] by Wiley and Putnam under the title of °EUREKA: A PROSE POEM.(38)

In 1849, Mr Poe left New York for Virginia, stopping awhile in Richmond, where he delivered one, or, perhaps, more lectures. There it is said that he was engaged to be married to a widow lady, to whom he had either been formerly engaged, or had loved in his early life; but the nuptials were never consummated.

On the 4th of October he departed for New York. On arriving in Baltimore, he gave his trunk to a Porter, went to a Tavern, where he met some of his vile associates; drank too freely; lay out all night: was taken in the morning to the Hospital, where he soon became insane, and on Sunday evening, the 7th day of October, 1849, °died, at the early age of thirty-eight.

Thus was born — thus lived — and thus passed away from the earth the divine spirit of Edgar A. Poe — one [of] the greatest — if not the very greatest Critic that ever lived.(39)

[[Footnotes]]

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 34:]

29 Followed by “of Edgar Allan Poe” — marked through.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 35:]

30 The end of page 9b (rest blank).

31 This paragraph is preceded on sob (small sheet) by the following, crossed out: “Collosium, a Poem of no merit at all, to the Committee, consisting of Mr John P. Kennedy; J. H. B. Latrobe; and John H. Miller, who awarded to him the prize not only for the best Tale, (which was his Manuscript found in a Bottle and his Poem, entitled THE COLOSEUM. This ward was announced by publication on the 12th of October 1833.

About the close of the year 1834, Mr T. W. White established The Southern Literary Messenger. On receiving an application from him for an article for his Magazine, Mr Kennedy advised Poe to write one. He did so. A little while after this Mr White made a proposition to Poe to come to Richmond and become the Editor of his Magazine. Poe accepted his offer and went. He remained there until 1837, when from his accustomed irregularity of habit, he was dismissed by Mr White from the Editorial Chair of the Messenger [See Griswold, “Memoir,” p. xxix.]”

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 36:]

32 Words in brackets have been marked out by Chivers.

33 Followed by the marked-through: “from the same irregularities which had caused his departure from all the other Magazines, Graham was compelled to dismiss him.”

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 37:]

34 Followed by the marked-out: “as the following letter will show.” Then space is skipped before the next paragraph.

35 Followed by the marked-through: “between the month of May / and October.”

36 Followed by the marked-through: “following.”

37 Followed by the marked-through: “to me show.”

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 38:]

38 Followed by this crossed-out paragraph:

“As his name, about this time, was frequently associated with that of Mrs Sarah Helen Whitman, of Providence, Rhode Island, I cannot, perhaps, [render? ] [a] better service to his memory than to quote Poe's address to her.”

39 The following crossed-out passage follows in the same paragraph:

Evidently Chivers tried and and [[sic]] tried again in this much crossed-out passage.