Exploring Edgar Allan Poe's New York

While beloved American short story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe is most closely associated with Baltimore – which even named its football team, The Ravens, after his most famous work — the gothic writer also has a close relation to New York City.

“He kept on coming back to New York City because he had hoped that this was the place to be for the publishing world,” said Kathy McAuley, director of Poe Cottage. “Unfortunately, even up to the point that he died, it didn’t quite do it for him. It’s significant to know that he came back again and again, looking for that elusive prosperity.”

Two hundred years after his birth, Poe’s final residence, Poe Cottage in the Bronx, is now a museum, which allows you to see how the author lived the last years of his life, from 1846-49. And it is especially important, as it is the only place left in New York where Poe did live.

While living in his Bronx home, he wrote and/or published a number of pieces, including “The Bells,” “Ulalume,” “Eureka,” “Annabel Lee” and “The Cask of Amontillado.”

While all of the other places have been torn down,  there are still places in the city that he frequented.

One such place is the Northern Dispensary, down in the West Village at Waverly Place and Christopher Street, McAuley said.

“We do know that when he lived in the Village in 1837, he went there for remedies for a cold,” she said. “[It was] where his doctor’s office was, I guess.”

Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia CLemm in 1835 in Baltimore.

It is said that Poe invented the detective genre.

To this day, the cause of Poe’s death remains unknown, though it is speculated that it could have been from alcohol, heart disease, tuberculosis, brain congestion, chlorea or rabies

Many musicians have put Poe’s words to music, including Frankie Lane, Phil Ochs and Joan Baez.

His first published work, released in 1827, was “Tamerlane and Other Poems,” credited to “a Bostonian” 

Poe’s older brother, William Henry Leonard Poe (1807-1831), was also a published author, with his poem “Dreams” and his short story, “The Pirate,” coming out in 1827

Also named Edgar Allan Poe, the author’s great nephew (1871-1961) was Attorney General of Maryland from 1911-1915.

"The Balloon Boy" of the 19th century

While a balloon hoax is in all the headlines these days, Poe was responsible for a balloon hoax of his own in 1844. The author had written a story in The Sun about Monck Mason, a European balloonist who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a mere 75 hours. Diagrams and specifications of the balloon were included with the article. 

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