“Quoth the Raven, ‘Wahoowa!’”
Today, February 14th, marks the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s enrollment at the University of Virginia. Poe entered the University in 1826 as a part of its second class, appearing 136th out of 177 students on UVA’s matriculation list.i
Construction on Virginia’s first public University began in 1817 and was completed in 1825.ii Thomas Jefferson envisioned his new university as an academic community, as he famously declared “[The] University should not be an [sic] house but a village.”iii Poe may have encountered Jefferson on the campus grounds, as Jefferson regularly visited the school from nearby Monticello. On July 4th, 1826, Poe would have learned of the death of the University’s founder in his modern languages class. Upon the news of Jefferson’s passing, the University’s bells tolled for the first time, signaling not only a significant loss for the school but also for the nation.
At the time of his enrollment, Poe’s relationship with his foster father, John Allan, was strained. Although Allan had recently inherited a substantial fortune from his late uncle, William Galt, he refused to fully finance Poe’s education. In a letter to Allan written in 1831, Poe detailed the financial strain of his university expenses:…