Edgar Allan Poe's Twice-Told Stories

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were two traveling actors from an English theatrical family. Both of them died before Poe was three years old, which resulted in him and his two siblings living in foster care. Although not legally adopted, Poe was taken in by a Scottish tobacco exporter, John Allan. He spent most of his early life with the Allan family, besides a five-year time span when he traveled to England to attend the Manor House School. When he returned to America, he attended the University of Virginia for a single term, then withdrew because of his debts brought on by gambling. After quarreling with John Allan about the debts, Poe left the family and went to Boston where he enrolled in the military under the name Edgar A. Perry. He wrote throughout his lifetime and published his first book in 1827, which was titled Tamerlane, and …show more content…
He was in a desperate financial situation after his guardian, John Allan, left him out of his will, and after several attempts to find an income, the Southern Literary Messenger hired him as an editor. He published several of his stories in the magazine, but his extensive publications of criticisms are what brought him the most attention (May). His most notable review is of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales, which discusses the distinctive characteristics of short fiction (May). In 1837, Poe moved to New York to look for editorial work. While there, he published his only novella, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Unfortunately, he was unable to find work in New York, which led him to Philadelphia, where he published a platonic romance titled “Ligeia.” He finally found work in 1839, when he joined the editorial staff of Burton’s General Magazine, which allowed him to publish two of his greatest stories, “The Fall of the House of the Usher” and “William