Biography of Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and in his many restless moves, lived in half a dozen Eastern cities. His true home was always in the "misty mid region of Weir" of his own fertile and troubled imagination. His father was David Poe, a Baltimore actor. His actress mother, Elizabeth, born of English parents, had come to the United States as a child. The two were not notably talented; they played minor roles in rather third-rate theatrical companies. Between them they barely managed to make a living. Edgar was the second of t