away, as his father had done before him, and went to Boston. There he appears to have lived under an assumed name. His first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published in 1827 under the pseudonym of "A Bostonian," not even the printer knowing the author's real name, and in the same year Poe enlisted in the United States Army as Edgar A. Perry, giving his age as twenty-two.

His military career covers a period of four years, and is not without incident. When he enlisted, he was assigned to the First Artillery, and he served with this command at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor, and later at Fort Moultrie and Fortress Monroe, rising to the rank of sergeant-major. Mr. Allan learned of his whereabouts in 1829, and secured his discharge from the army. In the same year Poe published at Baltimore, under his own name, a second volume of his poems, entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. In 1830 he entered the Military Academy at West Point, where he stayed about six months. Deliberate, prolonged neglect of duty then caused him to be court-martialed and dismissed. Reconciliation with Mr. Allan was this time impossible, and Poe was thrown finally on his own resources.

Immediately after leaving West Point, Poe went to New York, and there published a volume with the simple title Poems, calling it a second edition, although it was really a third. He then settled at Baltimore, where in October, 1833, he won a prize of $100 by his story entitled A MS. found in a Bottle. He began, also, to write for The Southern Literary Messenger, a new periodical published at Richmond, and after a short time he removed to that city and became the Messenger's assistant editor. He was well fitted for editorial work, and his many tales, criticisms, and poems soon made the magazine famous. Much of this work was done under pressure and is of little interest now; a few of the poems strike a new note, and a half dozen of the tales have been preserved in the Tales of the Folio Club.

But his book reviews made the new Southern monthly a magazine of national reputation. They were of a sort not previously known in this country, bold, keen, and effective; they aroused much interest, and they made Poe's name known throughout the land. During this period of prosperity Poe married, on May 16, 1836, his cousin, Virginia Clemm, who was then less than fourteen years old.

In January, 1837, however, the prosperity ended. Poe's eccentric nature caused him to leave the Messenger, and he went to New York to live. He stayed in New York one year, publishing his longest story, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and then removed to Philadelphia. During the six years of his residence there he contributed to various magazines and did much editorial work. He published Tales of the Arabesque and Grotesque (1840); he edited The Gentleman's Magazine, reprinting his old work sometimes with changed titles and slightly revised text; he tried without success to start a journal of his own; he edited also, for a short time, Graham's Magazine, then a leading literary journal. In 1843 he won another prize of $100 with The Gold-Bug.

Poe's popularity was growing, and it reached its height in 1844, when he returned to New York and formed a connection with The Mirror. In January, 1845, this paper published The Raven, which brought the author instantaneous fame. He became the literary success of the day, and his works were published and sold in new editions. But despite these apparently brilliant prospects, worldly success was as far distant as ever. For a few months Poe was one of the editors of a new weekly, The Broadway Journal, but he broke with his partner, and an attempt to conduct the paper alone resulted in failure. During this year he published a volume of Tales and The Raven and Other Poems.

Early in 1846 Poe removed to the famous cottage at Fordham, New York, and here, on January 30, 1847, his

young wife died amid scenes of direst poverty. The brief remainder of Poe's life was marked by a feverish eagerness approaching very near to insanity. He wrote for various magazines, publishing among many other things The Bells and Eureka. His life became more and more erratic; on the 3d of October, 1849, he was found in delirium in Baltimore, and four days later he died in a hospital in that city.

Poe's writings, whether prose or verse, always reflect the nature of the man. He was reserved, isolated, and dreamy, with high-strung nerves and a longing for solitude, and his writings show a wildness of genius and a fondness for scenes of mystery and desolation. The body of his poetical work is slight, but it is marked by a weird melody hardly to be found elsewhere in English. His prose is more considerable in amount, and consists of criticisms and of a morbidly imaginative and sombrely supernatural fiction. His critical work, appearing at a time when true criticism was almost unknown in America, was long considered his best work, but is now little read. The themes of his tales are to many readers forbiddingly remote; he dwells on scenes of physical decay that are sometimes repulsive and loathsome. But to persons of sensitive imagination they have a notable charm, and they have served as models for a whole class of weird and mysterious literature. Poe will be known by most readers as the author of a few curious poems and many short pieces of powerful and uncanny fiction; but the beauty and rhythm of these few poems, and the power and intensity of the tales, make secure Poe's place among the immortals of American literature.