Edgar Allan Poe's elder brother Henry had…
1837 CE
After his brother's death, Poe had begun more earnest attempts to start his career as a writer.
He has chosen a difficult time in American publishing to do so.
He is the first well-known American to try to live by writing alone and is hampered by the lack of an international copyright law.
Publishers often produce unauthorized copies of British works rather than paying for new work by Americans.
The industry is also particularly hurt by the Panic of 1837.
There is a booming growth in American periodicals around this time period, fueled in part by new technology, but many do not last beyond a few issues and publishers often refuse to pay their writers, or pay them much later than they promise.
Throughout his attempts to live as a writer, Poe repeatedly has to resort to humiliating pleas for money and other assistance.
After his early attempts at poetry, Poe had turned his attention to prose.
He had placed a few stories with a Philadelphia publication and began work on his only drama, Politian.
The Baltimore Saturday Visiter awarded Poe a prize in October 1833 for his short story "MS. Found in a Bottle".
The story had brought him to the attention of John P. Kennedy, a Baltimorean of considerable means.
He had helped Poe place some of his stories, and introduced him to Thomas W. White, editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond.
Poe became assistant editor of the periodical in August 1835, but was discharged within a few weeks for having been caught drunk by his boss.
Returning to Baltimore, Poe had obtained a license to marry his cousin Virginia on September 22, 1835, though it is unknown if they were married at that time.
He was twenty-six and she was thirteen.
Reinstated by White after promising good behavior, Poe had gone back to Richmond with Virginia and her mother.
He had remained at the Messenger until January 1837.
During this period, Poe claims that its circulation increased from seven hundred to thirty-five hundred.
He publishes several poems, book reviews, critiques, and stories in the paper.
On May 16, 1836, he and Virginia Clemm had held a Presbyterian wedding ceremony at their Richmond boarding house, with a witness falsely attesting Clemm's age as twenty-one.
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Northern North America
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