Edgar Allan Poe Net Worth

How much was Edgar Allan Poe worth?

About Edgar Allan Poe

An American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, and his estimated net worth is $20 million. One of the most significant American writers of the 19th century was Edgar Allan Poe. But in Baltimore in 1849, at the age of just 40, he was declared dead, drunk, and bewildered.

He was instrumental in developing the short story as a literary form during his very brief writing career, as well as in the development of the macabre tale, science fiction, and even detective story genres.

The writer Edgar Allan Poe was a genius. However, they can deal with issues like addiction, much like many other highly intelligent guys, frequently authors. Unknown factors likely contributed to Poe’s premature demise. Disease, alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and other factors have all been suggested as possible reasons. Dr. Joseph E. Snodgrass was informed in 1849 that Poe was “in a state of beastly intoxication.” by a note.

Ironically, a lot of Edgar Allan Poe’s best writing is thought to have been produced while he was under the influence. Together with The Raven.

Poe’s life was troubled.

He was reared by a foster father who had many issues because he was the orphaned son of actresses. He served in the American Army while he was a young man, temporarily attended the University of Virginia, and was dismissed from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He grew adamant about pursuing a writing profession.

He struggled greatly in his attempt to make a living as a writer. Additionally, his personal issues were well-known. His young wife, to whom he was devoted, passed away slowly and painfully, which did nothing to improve his drinking problem or apparent mental instability.

Despite having a number of books published and earning a reputation as a gifted writer, he fell on hard times, and it appeared that his life would end in tragedy. He is frequently recalled as a renowned tragic person. On the other hand, he is also considered as a literary titan of the United States, standing with Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau.

Earlier Years of Poe

Poe was born on January 19, 1809, the son of poor actors David and Elizabeth Poe. Within three years of his birth, both of his parents passed away. He was raised by Richmond, Virginia, merchant John Allan and his wife Frances.

Poe received an education thanks to the Allans, even though John Allan did not particularly like having the boy live with them. Poe enrolled in Thomas Jefferson’s university, the University of Virginia, in 1826.

Poe’s collegiate career was a complete failure. He reportedly gambled a lot and drank a lot. Poe left the university as his foster father failed to pay his bills. He set out on his own in the spring of 1827 and eventually found his way to Boston, where he persuaded a bookseller to publish a collection of his poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems.

Poe decided to serve in the U.S. Army after finding it unable to support himself financially. He did so by using the alias Edgar A. Perry. He obtained a position at the U.S. Military Academy after realizing that he would be interested in a career as an Army officer. In the summer of 1830, he enrolled at West Point.

After a few months, Poe decided the strictness of West Point was not for him, and he stopped attending lessons and showing up for inspections. On January 28, 1831, he was tried in a court-martial and expelled from the academy.

At the age of 24, Poe determined his profession would be writing rather than in the military.

Career as a Writer

Poe moved to Baltimore in 1831 to live with his birth mother’s relatives and struggled with his poems and short stories. Despite the poverty in the family, Poe felt at home and was glad to live with his grandmother, two cousins, and aunt.

Poe participated in a number of literary competitions sponsored by newspapers and periodicals in the early 1830s. He did well enough to receive $50 in addition to some favorable feedback regarding his writing skills. By 1835, he had started contributing pieces to the Southern Literary Messenger, a significant publication from Richmond, Virginia.

Poe accepted the editor position that the Messenger’s owner had offered him. Although he relocated to Richmond, the job did not pan out. Poe started drinking regularly, lost his job, and moved back to Baltimore because he might have been troubled by regrettable recollections of his youth in Richmond.

Poe received a second opportunity in Richmond when the magazine’s owner agreed to give him his job back if he stayed clean. This time, he brought his new bride with him when he returned to the city. He had wed Virginia Clemm, a relative of his who was 13 years old.

Poe stirred some controversy during his second stint as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger by writing book reviews that were frequently quite critical. He ultimately lost his job again, but by that point he had established himself as a literary critic.

Poe later began working as an editor at magazines in Philadelphia and New York City. His first collection of short stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, was released in 1839. Because of the book’s poor sales, he decided to start his own magazine. After failing, he accepted a job as an editor at Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia.

Poe worked on detective tales throughout the early 1840s, including “The Gold Bug” and “The Purloined Letter.” Sherlock Holmes, the famous investigator created by Arthur Conan Doyle, was modeled by one of his characters, a detective named C. Auguste Dupin.

The detective stories were more lucrative than anything else Poe had written, even though he might not have thought of them as great works of art. But his drinking once more stood in the way of his accomplishment. In an attempt to secure a job in the John Tyler administration, he once flew to Washington, D.C., but a drinking incident derailed the trip, and he humiliatingly returned to Philadelphia.

Personal Decline

Poe and his young wife relocated to New York City in 1844. The next year, he published a well-known hoax in the New York Sun, a penny press publication that specialized in spectacular news. In Poe’s tale, an Atlantic balloon voyage was described. He became well-known enough as a result of the story to receive an offer to edit the New York Mirror.

Poe’s most well-known poem, “The Raven,” appeared in the Mirror in January 1845. Finally, his life appeared to be going well, but as usual, his personality faults and constant drinking caused issues. There were tales of intoxicated incidents in the streets of Boston and New York.

On January 30, 1847, Virginia Clemm Poe, who had been battling consumption for years, passed away. Poe never fully healed after losing his wife. He attempted to start a new magazine during the final two years of his life and planned a second marriage. He did, however, appear to be in a downward spiral.

He would consume so much alcohol while traveling to gather money for a new publishing endeavor that he began to believe men were plotting his murder. Late in September 1849, he vanished from Baltimore, and on October 3, 1849, he was discovered, but he was too confused to remember where he had been or what had happened. On October 7, 1849, he passed away. Edgar Allan Poe’s net worth was $20 million at the time of his passing.

Poe’s Legacy

The psychological depths of Poe’s frequently grisly writings foretold the writing of the 20th century, and he is now considered as one of the founders of modern literature. And over time, the subgenres Poe helped create—namely, horror and detective stories—have grown in popularity.