The Fall of the House of
Usher and William Wilson | Edgar Allen Poe
Life
- 1809-1849
- Born Boston to itinerant actors
- Drunk father, frail mother
- Mother drags him from theatre to theatre
- Orphaned by age 2
- Reared by godfather, a Virginia merchant named John Allan (middle name)
- Has falling out with Allan by 1820
- Began having nightmares by age 15
- Broke down several years later and shows signs of insanity
- Drinks and takes opiates to drown his grief and sorrows
- Briefly attends University of Virginia and West Point
- Wrote first book in 1827
- From 1835 on, was a prominent journalist and magazine editor
- In 1836, married 13 year-old cousin, Virginia Klemm, and lives in poverty with his wife and aunt
- She dies of tuberculosis in 1847, hugging a tortoise shell cat to keep warm
- Poe dies in Baltimore in 1849 after a bout of drinking. He had also attempted to commit suicide several times
- Denounced God: atheist of the heart – believed that he would become God after his death
- Criticized J.F. Cooper for moralizing in his novels
- Complex insecurity – to bolster his self-esteem