Born on January 19, 1809, Edgar Allan Poe was the son of David and Elizabeth (Eliza) Poe, actors at the Boston Theatre. Poe's father left early on, and his mother died before he reached the age of three. Edgar was raised as a foster child by the Allan family of Richmond, VA from that point on.

At the time of his birth, this building's address was #62 Carver St. However, there have been a number of street moves and renames since 1809.

In 1924, the Boston Authors' Club put a memorial tablet to Edgar Allan Poe on a building at the corner of Fayette St. and Poe Sq. However, this was an incorrect placement. According to later property records research by the Bostonian Society, the Poes lived at 62 Carver St. when Edgar Allan was born.

The building survives today, and is near the intersection of Charles St. South and Stuart St.

view full location details...

Founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844, The Broadway Journal was a short-lived magazine that specialized in literature and literary review, criticism of art, theater, and music as well as poetry and articles on politics.

Riding the wave of success that "The Raven" generated, Edgar Allan Poe signed a year-long contract as editor on February 21, 1845. Poe wrote a number of short stories for the Journal, including including "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Oval Portrait." He also wrote a number of literary criticism pieces, and continued to publicly accuse Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism.

Despite his efforts, The Broadway Journal officially ended with a final issue dated January 3, 1846.

view full location details...

This address was the former location of The Evening Mirror and The Weekly Mirror- George Pope Morris and Nathaniel Parker Willis, editors & publishers.

Edgar Allan Poe worked here from October, 1844, to February, 1845. Willis was a well-paid ($1,500 a year) and popular writer, but he recognized talent in Poe.

On January 29, 1845, Willis published "The Raven" in the Evening Mirror. Poe had recently left the Mirror to join Charles Briggs as co-editor at The Broadway Journal. The poem became an immediate success, and Poe's fee had dramatically increased to $50 a poem.

Of the poem's success, Poe wrote a friend:

‘The Raven’ has had a great ‘run,’ Thomas—but I wrote it for the express purpose of running—just as I did the ‘Gold-Bug,’ you know. The bird beat the bug, though, all hollow.

view full location details...

The Sun was a New York broadsheet newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950.

Later in its life, The Sun became a reputable paper. It was considered the most conservative voice of the big three NYC papers- The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune being the others.

In its earlier years, while it was headquartered at this address, The Sun would occasionally fabricate hoaxes to draw readership. One such successful hoax was the Great Moon Hoax of August, 1835, which was a series of six articles that told fantastic stories of forests and oceans on the moon, inhabited by bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids ("Vespertilio-homo").

Edgar Allan Poe had written a story two months prior (in June of 1835) called The Unparalleled Adventure Of One Hans Pfaall for the Southern Literary Messenger, where an adventurer takes a balloon to the moon and encounters many similarities. Poe complained that the Great Moon Hoax was at least partially plagiarized from his story (which is considered one of the earliest examples of science-ficton).

Poe would have his own successful hoax for The Sun in 1844: "The Balloon-Hoax." Poe's fictional (yet factual-sounding) article disclosed that famous European balloonist Monck Mason had crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 75 hours. The details of the article included a diagram and specifications of the craft. The newspaper was swarmed with people to get copies of the paper, and even though the story was retracted two days later, readership had massively increased.

view full location details...

This address if the former location of Gowan's Antiquarian Bookstore, a store dealing in "Historical Americana". The proprietor was William Gowan, and the shop would often be visited by writers living in the area. Edgar Allan Poe was known to shop here while he was living at a boarding house in the neighborhood.

Herman Melville probably exchanged greetings with Poe here; they were acquainted through a mutual editor. Melville once purchased a copy of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy here that his father had once owned.

He stated: "I bought this book more than four years ago at Gowen’s Store in New York. Today, Allan in looking at it, first detected the above pencil signature [A. Melvill] of my father’s; who, – as it now appears – must have had the book, with many others, sold at auction, at least twenty-five years ago. – Strange!"

Gowans, a Scotland-born American, might well be considered America's earliest complete bookman- he not only sold books to walk-in customers but issued at least one catalog a year between 1842 and 1870.

view full location details...