U.S. #986 was issued to honor Edgar Allen Poe on the 100th anniversary of his death. Poe was orphaned as an infant in Boston, and was taken in by a family in Richmond, Virginia, where he grew up. Richmond hosts the Poe Museum, and was the site of the First Day of Issue for this stamp. Poe was nearly included in the “Famous Americans” stamps in 1940. This 1949 stamp is designed in a similar manner to stamps from that series. Birth Of Renowned Writer Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe’s work, featuring dark themes of death and violence, is a reflection of his tormented and tragic life. His father abandoned the family when Edgar was only a year old. His mother, actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe, died when he was only two. Eerily, the Richmond Theater, where she gave her last performance, burned to the ground a few days later, killing 72 people.