On January 19, 1809, Edgar Poe was born in Boston. Later, in 1811, Poe's parents died, leaving him to live with the Allan family in Richmond. He was baptized with the name of Edgar Allan Poe. After an argument with the Allan's, Poe moved back to Boston, enlisting in the army. However, he enlisted under the name of Edgar A. Perry. After obtaining the rank of Sergeant Major, he then went to West Point in 1830 and 1831.
In 1836, Poe married a woman named Virginia Clemm, who was his aunt's daughter. However, in 1847, Virginia died.
In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was accepted anew by the fiancee he had lost in 1826, named Sarah Elmira Royster. After his return north on October 3, 1849, Poe was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. On Ocotober 7, 1849, Edgar Allen Poe died at the age of forty. In a brief obituary the Baltimore Clipper reported that Poe had died of "congestion of the brain."