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Edgar Allan Poe: John Allan
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Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who were itinerant actors. His father David Poe Jr. died probably in 1810. Elizabeth Hopkins Poe died in 1811, leaving three children. Edgar was taken into the home of a Richmond merchant John Allan. The remaining children were cared for by others. Poe's brother William died young and sister Rosalie become later insane.
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Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother died when he was 3 and so in the absence of his real father he was adopted by John Allan a wealthy merchant from Richmond. Edgar was educated in both America and for 5 years in England (The Manor School at Stoke Newington).
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The Allan family had Poe baptized in the Episcopal Church in 1812. John Allan alternately spoiled and aggressively disciplined his foster son.[8] The family, including Poe and Allan's wife, Frances Valentine Allan, sailed to England in 1815. Poe attended the grammar school in Irvine, Scotland (where John Allan was born) for a short period in 1815, before rejoining the family in London in 1816. He studied at a boarding school in Chelsea until summer 1817. He was subsequently entered at the Reverend John Bransby’s Manor House School at Stoke Newington, then a suburb four miles (6 km) north of London.[9]
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After his discharge in April 1829, Poe took these recommendations, along with a letter from John Allan himself, to Secretary Eaton. The tone of Allan's letter was very cold, but it did ask Eaton "to aid this youth in the promotion of his future prospects." He ... added that "it will afford me great pleasure to reciprocate any kindness you can show him." Allan, however, made it quite clear that he was under no obligation to Poe and that Edgar was no relation of his. In May, Allan wrote a separate letter to Poe advising him to find out details of his grandfather's service during the Revolutionary War, because "it may be of service and cannot do you any harm" (Symons 31).
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Edgar attained a discharge from the Army and enrolled as a cadet at West Point (with the assistance of John). Receiving little monetary assistance, and desiring to pursue a literary career caused Edgar to try to resign from West Point. As legal guardian, John Allan refused to allow Edgar to resign. This only widened the rift between Edgar and his guardian. Shortly after Edgar entered West Point, John Allan fathered twin sons by a Richmond woman. A few months later, Allan remarried and his new wife became pregnant soon after the wedding.
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Poe managed to get to Boston, where he signed up for a 5-year enlistment in the U.S. Army. In 1827, as well, he had his Tamerlane and Other Poems published at his own expense, but the book failed to attract notice. By January 1829, serving under the name of Edgar A. Perry, Poe rose to the highest noncommissioned rank in the Army, sergeant major. He was reluctant to serve out the full enlistment... and he arranged to be discharged from the Army on the understanding that he would seek an appointment at West Point. He thought that such a move might cause a reconciliation with his guardian. That same year Al Araaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems was published in Baltimore and received a highly favorable notice from the novelist and critic John Neal.
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John Allan