Poe May Have Died in Baltimore, But He Was Born In Beantown

Edgar Allen Poe was talented. But he had a rough start in life, and quickly became bitter jerk and a depressive drunk. True. Yet I'm a bit obsessed with miserable Poe, unfortunately, and it's most probably because I recognize the ugly stuff about myself in him.

Most people associate Poe with Baltimore, the city of his death, but he actually was born in Boston, a city he despised for a number of reasons, all of them revolving around the same basic bitterness:

1) He considered Boston the hub of the weathy, elitist literati like Longfellow (whom he turned his hatred into a full-time job)

2) He bombed during a Boston poetry reading one evening and was shredded to pieces in the press the following day.

Having been envious of wealthy or more appropriately "connected" people and also having bombed in front of a live audience before myself, I think he is justified in his distaste for the town. It's immature and exactly how I'd react. Poe was the son of an actor and actress. In those times, a career as an actor was considered as about as low as you can get. In other words: no dough. They both died young, and Poe was raised by the Allens in Virginia, and in Poe's defense Mr. Allen wasn't exactly the nicest guy.

In Boston's defense, Poe reacted to the press after his disasterous reading exactly like he shouldn't have, he let it get to him, he said stupid shit, and gave them more fodder. And Longfellow? Sure, he was born into a little money and married into a serious amount more, but he didn't get his professorship at Harvard on a fluke. The dude could speak and write in over a dozen languages. I doubt he was a plagiarist like Poe claimed. Anyway, here's more about poor old Poe's roots in Boston.