Courtesy of BPL archivesFamed author Edgar Allan Poe was born in this house on Carver Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second child of American actorDavid Poe Jr.andEnglish-born actressElizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810and his mother died a year later frompulmonary tuberculosis. He would be adopted by John Allan, a merchant and slaver in Richmond, Virginia, his adopted family gave him the name Edgar Allan Poe. He would live a somewhat nomadic life, moving around often to cities all over the East Coast until his death in 1849 in Baltimore. Although it was his birthplace, Poes troubled early childhood likely contributed to his disdain for Boston, where he often referred to Bostonians as Frogpondians, after the frog pond on Boston Common, though as an insult. The poets seminal workThe Ravenwas published in January 1845 to widespread success. Several months later, Poe was invited to read at the Boston Lyceum with the support ofJames Russell Lowell,a Harvard professor and editor ofThe Atlantic Monthly. Itdid not go well.His childhood home on Carver Street would be razed by 1962 and is presently a surface parking lot for an electrical substation. The city would honor its macabre author by renaming an alley off Boylston Street, Edgar Allan Poe Way, and in 2014, the City commissioned a public statue titled, Poe Returning to Boston. Designed by Stefanie Rocknak, the statue depicts Poe walking, facing away from theBoston Common. His figure is accompanied by anoversized flying raven; his suitcase lid has fallen open, leaving a paper trail of literary works embedded in the sidewalk behind him.