Poes Influnces

James Caleb Price

Influences on Edgar Allan Poe 2044

American Literature I - EH 201 – 015

Mysti M. Nichols

“Poe manages to send the mind spinning off in strange vagaries of thought, to touch as no other writer does the deep-lying apprehensions of his readers even while appealing to a coldly rational element in them. . . . Certainly the volume of writing on Poe justifies a separate publication for the study of the man, his works, his career, his place in his times, and his reputation.” — G. Richard Thompson (adapted from his article “The Poe Case: Scholarship and ‘strategy’,” Poe Newsletter, vol. I, no. 1, April 1968, p. 2.)

Edgar Allan Poe is one of Americas most popular and influential writers. He is widely known around the world for his poems and short stories. His dark and gothic style leaves an impact on all that reads him and the influences and tragedies he experienced is revealed in much of his work. Poe, in his writing, reveal factors and atrocities that developed him as a person and as an iconic figure in American Literature still to this day. Poe was subject to tragedy at a very early age. His father, David Poe Jr, deserted he and his siblings when they were young children. Poe was only around three years old so this did not immediately impact him because he was still too young to understand. Not long after he was deserted by his father, his mother passes away from tuberculosis he was soon after taken in by the Alan family of Richmond, Virginia. Although Poe was never officially adopted, his new family renamed him Edgar Allan Poe.( Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.)  

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In 1825 , being a student of some of the best schools he could attend, Poe was accepted to the University of Virginia. Poe would do well at the University and he was very successful as far as his academics went but in less than a year he had to leave the chool because of a lack of support , financially, from his foster parent Alan. He had also acquired many debts in which he could not pay. The relationship Poe had with his foster father Alan was soon diminished on his return to Richmond so he would soon set out for Boston and enlist in the army. He also published his first poem collection around this time Tanerlane, and Other Poems.  These volumes were not noticed by readers and he soon published a second collection called  Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems,  which received only a small amount of attention in 1829. Soon after, Poe was honorably discharged from the army, being promoted to the rank of regimental sergeant major, and was then admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point. His foster father Allan would not support him financially nor sign a consent for him to resign from the academy he gained dismal by violating regulations and disregarding his duties. He then made way to New York where in 1831 his third collection of verse, Poems, was published. The absence of his real father and the lack of support from his foster father was definitely influential in some of his work. In “The Mask of Red Death” the prince who has become very successful is characterized as being a joyous man that has a refined culture. The prince who is a man that thrived in his kingdom also is named prospero witch sounds much like prosperous.