Did You Poe-it? Edgar Allan Poe in the Archives
From The Raven to The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe is among America’s most famous writers and poets. But did you know several of the 40 billion records preserved by the National Archives reveal lesser-known facts about his life and legacy?
In honor of Poe’s birthday on January 19, read on below to learn more about the famous writer and tell us, did you “Poe” it?


Photograph of Edgar Allan Poe by W.S. Hartshorn, 1848
Poe had a short-lived military career
Poe was enlisted in the U.S. Army between 1827 and 1829 and did exceptionally well, rising to the rank of sergeant major in just two years. On July 1, 1830, Poe entered West Point Military Academy, where he excelled…in misbehaving. Just seven months after his admittance, Poe was dismissed from West Point by sentence of court-martial.
But it wasn’t due to a lack of smarts. In fact, a 1998 National Archives exhibit, American Originals, displayed Poe’s court-martial record (shown below), and curator Stacey Bredhoff noted:
“Poe did well academically but was soon undone by continuing quarrels with his foster father and money problems. During his first term, he decided to leave West Point but could not resign without the consent of his foster father. When Allan did not consent, Poe set out to get himself court-martialed and dismissed.”
It would appear that despite being considered a top student in several subjects, including math and French, Poe was trying very hard to get kicked out of the military academy. Poe earned 44 offenses and 106 demerits over the July-December 1831 term, and in January 1832, he earned 66 offenses for that month alone. Although Poe’s military career was relatively short, it was certainly eventful.
Poe filed for bankruptcy in 1842
Despite being a talented math student at an early age, Poe struggled with his personal accounting. Poe famously had a gambling habit, which contributed to his accumulating debt. For instance, when he enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1826, he did not have sufficient funds to cover his tuition, so he gambled in an attempt to raise the rest of the funds. Instead, he generated $2,000 of debt. Because of this, Poe left university the same year.
Although much has been written about Poe’s financial woes, scholars were surprised when, in 2003, an archivist at NARA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office found Poe’s bankruptcy filing—shown below. Poe’s debts amounted to $2,071.41 (roughly $79,719 in today’s dollars) and included mostly book debt and money lent. Poe’s financial woes would follow him for the rest of his life.




Petition for bankruptcy filed by Edgar Allan Poe, December 19, 1842
Poe’s Philadelphia home is now a historic landmark
After leaving West Point, Poe lived in Baltimore, Maryland from 1832 to 1835, where he began to write several short stories and poems. In 1833, he won a $50 prize and garnered attention for his short story “MS. Found in a Bottle.” This notoriety earned him a job in Richmond, Virginia, where he lived for about two years before attempting to find literary work in New York City. Unable to find such work, Poe and his wife Virginia moved to Philadelphia in 1838 and remained there until 1844.
Several of Poe’s most famous works were written in Philadelphia, including “Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “Ligeia.” Although Poe lived in five Philadelphia homes, only his 1843 home survives today (shown below). Now a museum and National Historic Landmark, the home offers a look into Poe’s life at the height of his literary achievements.
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