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DGAR ALLAN POE was the son of David and Elizabeth Poe, both of the histrionic profession, and was born on the 19th of January 1809, in Boston, America. While yet a child he and a

brother and a sister were left

orphans by the sudden death of their father and mother at Richmond in 1811. The attention of some kind-hearted people was soon drawn to the bereaved children, and they were adopted into families in good position. The boy Edgar was taken charge of by a Mr. and Mrs. Allan-a wealthy childless couple-of Richmond, and these people soon became so captivated by the beauty and manners of the child, that they resolved upon giving him the education of a gentleman, with the

view, it is said, of making him their heir. When Edgar was eight years old they brought him to England, and as their stay in this country was to be of some duration, they placed him in the care of the Rev. J. Bransby, who had a school at Stoke Newington, where he stayed for nearly two years, when his foster-parents, returning to America, took him back with them, and placed him at a school at Richmond, under the care of Professor Clarke. He was about five years under the tuition of Dr. Clarke, during which time his progress in the Greek and Latin classics was immense. He also became an expert athlete, and was one of the best boxers, runners, and swimmers at the school. Better still, he was accounted " a free-hearted boy-kind to his companions, and always ready to assist them with hand or head." This-the mere surface of his life-would be appreciated; but the life within of Edgar would be too vast to be understood by boys of his own age, and when the toil and strife of the day were over, I may add, on the strength of his early poems, which he was then composing, he would have moods with which they would not be able to sympathise, and for which he himself would not be able to account-such moods in a youth being the natural attendants of genius of a high order.

About this time he met with a lady, one of those

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