13 Ways Edgar Allan Poe Was More Bizarre Than You Learned In School

Most people leave high school knowing Edgar Allan Poe as the gloomy writer of “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” His dark poetry and stories became staples of English class for generations. But what we were never told in school is that Poe’s real life was every bit as strange, tragic, and downright gothic as his fiction. He didn’t just write about madness and mystery – he lived it. From marrying a teenage cousin to dying under circumstances still debated today, Poe’s story reads like something he might have dreamed up himself.

Here are 13 of the most bizarre truths about the man who gave horror literature its soul.

1. He Used a Fake Name to Join the Army

When Poe’s first attempt at a literary career failed miserably, he didn’t just pack up and go home – he vanished. At age 18, broke and disillusioned, Poe enlisted in the United States Army under the alias “Edgar A. Perry.” He wasn’t just hiding from his failures – he was also hiding from creditors. The strange part? He actually thrived as a soldier, rising quickly to the rank of Sergeant Major. But the military couldn’t hold his attention forever, and he eventually abandoned it for the pen once again.

2. He Tried to Get Expelled from West Point… and It Worked

After serving in the Army, Poe managed to gain admission to West Point. But his old restlessness returned. Instead of formally quitting, Poe orchestrated his own downfall. He stopped going to class and neglected all duties until he was court-martialed and expelled after just eight months. Rumors once swirled that he was thrown out for showing up to a drill without any clothes – while that part’s untrue, it’s oddly believable given Poe’s penchant for the dramatic.

3. He Married His 13-Year-Old Cousin

One of the most uncomfortable facts about Poe’s life is his marriage to Virginia Clemm, his first cousin. She was just 13 years old; he was 27. They claimed it was a love match, and by all accounts, Poe was devoted to her. Still, the age difference – and the fact that she was family – would raise eyebrows in any century. To this day, historians debate the nature of their relationship and whether it was ever consummated.

4. His Parents Died Days Apart

Poe’s story starts in tragedy. His father, an alcoholic actor, abandoned the family when Edgar was still a baby. His mother, also an actress, died of tuberculosis when he was just two. In a haunting coincidence, his father also died around the same time – just three days later and in a different town. Orphaned at such a young age, Poe’s life was defined by loss from the very beginning.

5. He Was Taken in by Wealth—but Never Truly Adopted

After his parents’ deaths, Poe was taken in by the Allans, a wealthy merchant family in Richmond, Virginia. They gave him their name but never formally adopted him. His relationship with John Allan, the patriarch, was rocky at best. Allan believed Poe was ungrateful and refused to finance his college education, leading to a lifetime of tension and estrangement. Poe would later mock the name “Allan,” using it not as a badge of honor but as a reminder of rejection.

6. He Faked His Way Out of Military Service

Leaving West Point required more than just quitting – it meant finding someone to take his place in the Army. Poe convinced a Sergeant named Samuel Graves to finish his enlistment, promising to pay him. But true to Poe’s chaotic finances, he never came up with the money. When Graves contacted Poe’s guardian John Allan for help, Poe had already called Allan a drunk in a letter. Furious, Allan paid the debt – and then cut Poe off permanently, even threatening to beat him with a cane if he ever returned.

7. He Published a Book Almost No One Believed Was Real

Before he joined the Army, Poe self-published a tiny book of poems called Tamerlane and Other Poems. It was so obscure that for years, historians doubted it ever existed. Only a handful of copies were printed, and the few that survive today are among the rarest and most valuable books in American literature. Ironically, the book that almost vanished into history is now one of his most collectible works.

8. He Was a Famous Literary Critic—and a Savage One

Poe was known as “The Tomahawk Man” in literary circles because of his brutal reviews. He didn’t just critique other writers – he annihilated them. He called Henry Wadsworth Longfellow a plagiarist and regularly tore into what he saw as lazy or derivative writing. His reviews gained attention, but also made him enemies in the literary establishment. This pattern of self-sabotage and rebellion followed him for life.

9. He Earned Just $9 for “The Raven”

Poe finally hit it big in 1845 with the publication of The Raven. It was an instant hit. The poem was reprinted everywhere, and Poe became a literary celebrity. Children followed him down the street chanting “Nevermore!” But the fame didn’t translate into fortune. He made a mere $9 for the poem – about $350 today. Even with royalties and later reprints, he barely broke even. Despite creating one of the most iconic poems in American history, he never escaped poverty.

10. His Drinking Problem Got Him Fired—More Than Once

Poe struggled with alcohol for most of his adult life. He had moments of sobriety, but they rarely lasted. During his short stint at the Southern Literary Messenger, his drinking got so bad that the editor had to fire him. The same editor later rehired Poe on the condition that he stay sober – he was gone again within months. Friends and acquaintances described seeing Poe in the gutter, barely coherent, swearing it wouldn’t happen again.

11. He Tried to Marry His Way Out of Poverty

After the death of his wife Virginia, Poe became fixated on remarrying – partly for love, but largely out of financial desperation. He courted a widowed poet named Sarah Helen Whitman, then proposed to her… twice. Her mother was suspicious of Poe’s drinking and made legal arrangements to keep him from touching the family estate. That engagement fell apart, and Poe pivoted to another woman – Sarah Royster Shelton, an old flame from his youth. She hesitated, and before she could answer, Poe was dead.

12. His Death Was a Total Mystery

Poe’s final days are as cryptic as his stories. In 1849, he boarded a steamboat bound for New York but disappeared somewhere in Baltimore. Days later, he was found in a gutter, incoherent and wearing someone else’s clothes. He never recovered enough to explain what happened. He died four days later, at the age of 40. To this day, no one knows exactly what killed him. Theories range from alcohol poisoning to rabies to political kidnapping. The man who invented the modern detective story left behind a real-life mystery he never solved.

13. He Died Chasing Multiple Women—At the Same Time

Poe’s romantic life after Virginia was a whirlwind of desperate proposals and tangled affairs. While he was wooing Sarah Helen Whitman, he was also courting Annie Richmond, a married woman. At the same time, he was reconnecting with Sarah Royster Shelton, his childhood sweetheart. His correspondence was full of passionate declarations, sometimes to multiple women in the same time frame. He died before marrying any of them. One of them found out he had died by reading it in the newspaper.

A Life Stranger Than Fiction

Edgar Allan Poe didn’t just write stories of horror and mystery – he lived them. His life was marked by abandonment, loss, failure, and obsession. He wandered from city to city, job to job, and woman to woman, leaving behind a trail of broken dreams and brilliant pages. The man who gave us detectives and haunted houses died alone, with more questions than answers.

Why We’re Still Haunted by Poe

Poe’s writing endures not because he was a tragic figure – but because he was a brilliant one. His ability to tap into fear, longing, madness, and melancholy wasn’t just creative – it was personal. He didn’t have to imagine darkness. He lived in it. And somehow, he turned it into art. That contradiction – tormented genius, broken man, eternal storyteller – is what keeps readers coming back.

Most writers leave behind works. Poe left behind a legend. His life, with all its strange detours, losses, and unanswered questions, reads like the greatest story he never got to write. Perhaps that’s what makes him so compelling. He was a character in his own tale – one that ended too soon, with the last pages still missing.