Poe Returning to Boston

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, though after only a brief time there as an infant he was raised in Richmond, Virginia, and London, England. He returned to Boston at age 18 and published several major works there, including his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, in 1827, his famous story “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1843, and many of his last works in 1849, including “A Dream within a Dream,” “Hop-Frog,” and “To My Mother.” His relationship with Boston remained complicated, however, because although his mother Eliza Poe had hoped he would always love the city of his birth, his belief in poetry for its own sake led him to attack Boston literary figures as “Frogpondians” for using literature to teach moral and political lessons. He is represented as returning to Boston, arriving by train and walking south from the Frog Pond toward 62 Carver Street, where his parents were living around the time he was born, coming home with a trunk full of ideas and worldwide success.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States