Noah Webster publishes the American Dictionary of the English Language.  Jules Verne is born.

 1829  On New Year’s Day, Poe is promoted to sergeant-major. In February, Frances Allan dies, and Poe returns to Richmond, arriving the day following her funeral. Poe and John Allan rec oncile. Poe is released from the army and applies for entrance to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His admission is delayed, and he travels to Baltimore, where he finds a pub lisher for his second book of poems, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems.  Mexico abolishes slavery.
 1830  In the spring, Poe is admitted to West Point, where he distin guishes himself in his studies and is well liked by his fellow cadets. Yet tensions between him and John Allan rise again after Allan marries Louisa Gabriella Patterson, a woman twenty years his junior. John Allan stops supporting Poe fi nancially. The young man resolves to leave West Point and ceases to attend classes or church services. Emily Dickinson is born. 
 1831  Poe is court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from West Point. He travels to New York, where he publishes Poems. Poe returns to Baltimore, where he lives among his father’s family and reunites with his elder brother, William Henry, whose health is poor; William Henry dies on August 1. Poe enters the Philadelphia Saturday Courier’s fiction contest. He does not win the prize, but his work is praised. William Lloyd Garrison begins to publish his abolitionist newspaper, the Lib erator.  Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion. The population of the United States is nearly 13 million.
 1832  The Saturday Courier  publishes five of Poe’s stories: “Met zengerstein,” “The Bargain Lost” (later revised as “Bon-Bon”), “Duke de L‘Omelette,” “A Decided Loss” (later revised as “Loss of Breath”), and “A Tale of Jerusalem.” Horatio Alger and Louisa May Alcott are born.
 1833  Poe’s “MS. Found in a Bottle” wins a writing contest sponsored by a weekly Baltimore newspaper, the Saturday Visiter.  Poe’s repeated attempts to reconcile with John Allan are met
   with uncompromising resistance. Slavery is abolished in the British Empire. 
 1834  John Allan dies in Richmond on March 27. Before his death, Allan had written Poe out of his will, and the financially des perate young writer receives nothing from Allan’s large estate. 
 1835  Poe moves to Richmond, where he becomes editor of the Southern Literary Messenger.  Poe’s critical reviews and stories begin to appear in the journal, including “Berenice,” “King Pest,” and “Morella.” Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is born. P. T. Barnum gives his first exhibition.
 1836  Poe marries his fourteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm on May 16. He contributes many blunt, often scathing reviews to the Southern Literary Messenger  and gains a reputation as a fearless critic. Davy Crockett is killed at the Alamo.
 1837  Poe leaves the Southern Literary Messenger, possibly because of alcohol abuse, and takes Virginia and her mother to live in New York City. Chapters of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym are published in the Messenger. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales  is an American bestseller.
 1838 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Poe’s only novel, is pub lished in New York by Harper and Brothers. His tale “Ligeia” is published in the American Museum.  Poe moves his family to Philadelphia.
 1839  Poe becomes an assistant editor for Burton’s Gentleman’s Mag azine. He begins to write essays on cryptography (a life-long interest) and publishes “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson” in Burton’s.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes “Hyperion.” Abner Doubleday organizes the first game of baseball.
 1840  Lea and Blanchard, a Philadelphia publisher, releases Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe is fired from Burton’s. He serializes the novel The Journal of Julius Rodman in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine. James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pathfinder  is an American bestseller.
 1841  Poe works as an editor for Graham’s Magazine,  in which he publishes “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” generally considered the first modern detective story. Poe corresponds with James Fenimore Cooper. President William Henry Harrison dies a month after his inauguration and is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler. Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his first collection of essays. The U.S. population reaches 17 million.
 1842  Poe meets Charles Dickens, who publishes American Notes this year.