American Literature / Unit 8 AML 0702 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Edgar Allan Poe: The Life and the Legend
Captions available
The idea
Born in Boston to travelling actors, Poe was orphaned before he was four and taken in, though never adopted, by the tobacco merchant John Allan. Allan paid for the University of Virginia and then stopped; gambling debts forced Poe out. The quarrel shaped a career spent short of money.
In practice
Orphaned, taken in, and cut off.
Where people slip
A hostile obituarist built the legend.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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