Edgar Allan Poe Biography
Please Check!!
(teacher limited to be 3 paragraphs only. Please check my sentence fluency, grammar, and point out any unimportant points of his life.)
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Massachusetts, Boston, on January 19, 1809. His parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, were actors. Their father abandoned the family and their mother died soon after, so Edgar was split with his two siblings and he was adopted to John and Frances Allan of Virginia, a quite wealthy but childless couple. He first went to school at the age of six, while he was in England with the Allans. In 1826, he returned to the United States and attended the University of Virginia. However, due to the insufficiency of money, he started to gamble and lost a lot of money. This caused discord between Poe and John Allan, and forced Poe to leave the university before finishing his studies. Unfortunately, Poe and his foster dad never again narrowed their rifts in spite of Frances Allan¡¯s death will.
In 1827, Poe made his first publications ¡®Tamerlane and Other Poems¡¯ in Boston. After suffering from poverty, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland to live with his aunt, his cousin Virginia Clemm, and his brother who died soon after Poe joins the family. Before long, Frances Allan passed away as well. He published ¡®Al Aaraaf Tamerlane and Minor Poems¡¯ and ¡®Poems, Second Edition¡¯ during this period. He also began to work on writing prose. Baltimore Saturday Visitor published his short stories and he soon won a prize for one of them called ¡®The Manuscript found in a Bottle¡¯. This gave him a job as the assistant editor of Southern Literary Messenger. He develops as a talented writer while working at there. He published ¡®The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym¡¯, his one and only novel, in 1838. He also worked for the Burton¡¯s Gentleman¡¯s Magazine, Graham¡¯s Magazine, Evening Mirror, and Godey¡¯s Lady¡¯s Book. While writing for these magazines, he compiled his short stories into a book called ¡®Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque.¡¯ He also wrote his first detective story, ¡®The Murders in Rue Morgue¡¯ and other horror tales such as ¡®The Tell-Tale Heart¡¯ followed. When he published his poem ¡®The Raven¡¯, it was definitely the climax of his life.
When his wife Virginia died from tuberculosis, his life as well headed gradually to its end. Poe started to drink heavily and lost hope in life. He suffered insanity and depression. Some people think that he also took drugs. Poe even attempted suicidal. Many believe that he was found unconscious on a street of Baltimore on October 3, 1849 and died four days later. He might have died from alcoholism, diseases or he might have been murdered. He lived a rather tragic life and met a tragic death, yet he is remembered today as the creator of the horror genre and detective stories.
2 answers
(you have it reversed)
To whom does "their" refer in the 3rd sentence?
This is strange phrasing: "...so Edgar was split with his two siblings and he was adopted to John and Frances Allan..." Instead of "split with" you should use "separated from" and instead of "adopted to" you should use "adopted by" -- you'll apparently need to work hard to learn to choose the correct phrases and prepositions: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm
This doesn't make sense:
"However, due to the insufficiency of money, he started to gamble and lost a lot of money."
He had no money so he gambled and lost money??? If he had no money, what did he gamble with?
Please read over the rest of your paper -- or even better, have someone else read it aloud to you. You should be able to hear the errors.
Then repost if you wish.