Edgar Allan Poe Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EDGAR ALLAN POE. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE. Edgar Allan Poe was of gentle birth. His paternal grandfather, General David Poe, the descendant of an ancient and highly connected family, was born in Ireland, but, taken at a very early age by his parents to the United States, became a patriotic citizen of his adopted country, and greatly distinguished himself during the War of Independence. The General's eldest son, David, was destined for the law and after receiving the usual quantum of education then afforded by the schools of Baltimore?his birthplace ? was placed under Mr. William Gwynn, barrister-at-law, to read for the bar. The youthful student, the future poet's father, would appear to have found greater attraction in the drama than in jurisprudence, and, according to the testimony of a fellow-townsman,t " young Poe and several of his gay companions formed an association called the 'Thespian Club,' for the promotion of a taste for the drama. They met in a large room, in a house belonging to General Poe. . . . Here, at Vide Appendix A, for Ancestry. f E. L. Didier, Life of Edgar A. Poe, pp. 23, 24. 2 His Fathers Tendencies, their weekly meetings, they recited passages from the old dramatists, and performed the popular plays of the day, for the entertainment of themselves and their friends." According to the same authority, "David Poe became so infatuated with the stage that he secretly left his home in Baltimore, and went to Charleston, where he was announced to make his ' first appearance on any stage.' One of his uncles, William Poe, . . . saw the announcement in the newspapers; he went to Charleston, took David off the stage, and put him in the law office of the Honourable John Forsyth of Augusta," Georgia, his own (William Poe's) brother-in-law. The ver...Read More