“While the other boys wrote mere mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy was a born poet.  As a scholar he was ambitious to excel.  He was remarkable for self-respect, without haughtiness.  He had a sensitive and tender heart and would do anything for a friend.  His nature was entirely free from selfishness.”

At the age of seventeen Poe entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.  He left that institution after one session.  Official records prove that he was not expelled.  On the contrary, he gained a creditable record as a student, although it is admitted that he contracted debts and had “an ungovernable passion for card-playing.”  These debts may have led to his quarrel with Mr. Allan which eventually compelled him to make his own way in the world.

Early in 1827 Poe made his first literary venture.  He induced Calvin Thomas, a poor and youthful printer, to publish a small volume of his verses under the title “Tamerlane and Other Poems.”  In 1829 we find Poe in Baltimore with another manuscript volume of verses, which was soon published.  Its title was “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Other Poems.”  Neither of these ventures seems to have attracted much attention.

Soon after Mrs. Allan’s death, which occurred in 1829, Poe, through the aid of Mr. Allan, secured admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point.  Any glamour which may have attached to cadet life in Poe’s eyes was speedily lost, for discipline at West Point was never so severe nor were the accommodations ever so poor.  Poe’s bent was more and more toward literature.  Life at the academy daily became increasingly distasteful.  Soon he began to purposely neglect his studies and to disregard his duties, his aim being to secure his dismissal from the United States service.  In this he succeeded.  On March 7, 1831, Poe found himself free.  Mr. Allan’s second marriage had thrown the lad on his own resources.  His literary career was to begin.

Poe’s first genuine victory was won in 1833, when he was the successful competitor for a prize of $100 offered by a Baltimore periodical for the best prose story.  “A MSS.  Found in a Bottle” was the winning tale.  Poe had submitted six stories in a volume.  “Our only difficulty,” says Mr. Latrobe, one of the judges, “was in selecting from the rich contents of the volume.”

During the fifteen years of his literary life Poe was connected with various newspapers and magazines in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York.  He was faithful, punctual, industrious, thorough.  N. P. Willis, who for some time employed Poe as critic and sub-editor on the “Evening Mirror,” wrote thus: 

“With the highest admiration for Poe’s genius, and a willingness to let it alone for more than ordinary irregularity, we were led by common report to expect a very capricious attention to his duties, and occasionally a scene of violence and difficulty.  Time went on, however, and he was invariably punctual and industrious.  We saw but one presentiment of the man-a quiet, patient, industrious and most gentlemanly person.