Edgar Allan Poe (September 15, 1871 – November 29, 1961) was Attorney General of the State of Maryland from 1911 to 1915. He was born in Baltimore, the son of former Maryland Attorney General John Prentiss Poe. He was named for his second cousin, twice removed, the celebrated author Edgar Allan Poe, who died in 1849.
Poe attended Princeton University, and played varsity football there. He was the quarterback of the 1889 team, which finished with a perfect 10-0 record. After that season, Poe was named the quarterback of the 1889 College Football All-America Team—the first such team selected. After Princeton beat Harvard, 41-15, a Harvard man reportedly asked a Princeton alumnus whether Poe was related to the great Edgar Allan Poe. According to the story, "the alumnus looked at him in astonishment and replied, 'He is the great Edgar Allan Poe.'"
Poe graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1891 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He next attended law school at the University of Maryland, where he received a law degree in 1893. After traveling for more than a year in Europe, Poe joined his father and brothers in the family's law firm, John P. Poe & Sons. He was appointed as the Deputy State's Attorney for Baltimore in 1900, a position he held until 1903. He also served as deputy city solicitor and city solicitor for the City of Baltimore before being elected as Attorney General of the State of Maryland, a position he held from 1911 to 1915.
In 1895, Poe married Annie T. McKay, and they had a son, Edgar Allan Poe, Jr. His son, also a Princeton graduate, was severely wounded in World War I while serving as a U.S. Marine Corps second lieutenant in France.
Famous quotes containing the words edgar, allan, poe and/or attorney:
“We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:”
—Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy (1844–1881)
“And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the
floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“Think ... before the words—the vows are spoken, which put yet another terrible bar between us.... I call upon you in the name of God ... to be sincere with me—Can you, my Annie, bear to think I am another’s?”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“I always was of opinion that the placing a youth to study with an attorney was rather a prejudice than a help.... The only help a youth wants is to be directed what books to read, and in what order to read them.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)