Edgar Allan Poe1809-1849In personal appearance, Poe was a quiet man, shy but handsome in appearance; he was of slight build and was five feet eight inches tall. Her mouth was considered beautiful. His eyes, with long dark lashes, were hazel-gray. Edgar Poe was born in 1809 in Boston. It was in Richmond that Poe grew up, married, and first earned a national literary reputation. Many of the Richmond locations associated with Poe have been lost, but many still remain. Family Father: David Poe, an actor Mother: Elizabeth Poe, an actress Adoptive parents: John Allan, a tobacco merchant and his wife, Frances Allan, cared for Poe while he was young, but never legally adopted him. Wife: Poe married his cousin Virginia ClemmOccupations• Soldier• Editor and literary critic• AuthorTimelineEdgar Poe is the second of three children of David Poe and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, both professional actors and members of a traveling theater company. Mr. Placide's theater company in Boston employed Poe's birth parents, David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe. They had married in Richmond while on tour in 1806. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, but he considered Richmond his home and called himself "a Virginian," where his mother had worked as an actress. . David Poe, unknown because of his more famous wife, his promising career ruined by alcoholism, Edgar's father, abandoned the family when Edgar was still an infant; nothing conclusive is known about his life thereafter. While appearing professionally in Richmond, Virginia, Poe's mother fell ill and died on December 8, 1811, in Richmond, at the age of twenty-four. can be seen. St. John's is Richmond's oldest church and is famous as the place where Patrick Henry delivered the stirring "liberty or death" oration shortly before the Revolutionary War. The Richmond Theater where Edgar Poe's mother had performed was burned to the ground on December 26, 1811, just eighteen days after her death. The fire claimed the lives of many Richmonders, including Virginia Governor George Smith and his wife. At the site of the tragedy on East Broad Street, the Monumental Episcopal Church was erected in memory of the victims. Her three children, who maintained contact with each other throughout their lives, were sent to live with different foster families. The families of Richmond welcomed the other two children who were Rosalie, just eleven months old, of William and Jane Scott Mackenzie.