What kind of struggles did Edgar Allan poe go through during his life?

-- Anonymous, October 14, 2002

Answers

Super brief. Read biographies for fuller treatment. Orphaned as a toddler(father ran off and died an alcoholic, mother died impoverished though a young popular actress). Siblings divided, his brother a sailor and amateur writer died an alcoholic. Lonely, feeling apart from others. Friend's mother inspired him(Mrs. Stanard). She died. His beloved stepmother died. Estranged from stepfather(Allan) who withdrew his support from him during his wild college years. Literary careers didn't pay much except for the publishers the Poe phenomenon temporarily enriched. Driven away from his first love, nearly again when he married his cousin, Virgina. Life of poverty and struggle. Virginia sickened and died in her twenties because of this(TB). Alcoholism, poverty, couldn't secure steady employment. At a different level than any of his peers, especially the established northern literary circles. His own ill health caught up to him after a distraught, struggling period after Virginia's death.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2002