ized he could not hope to make a living as a freelance writer, despite a $100 prize he won for "The Gold Bug," prompting him to move to New York. New York was the literary center for America at the time and Poe knew he would fare better writing along-side the other literary giants of the time, such as William Cullen Bryant and Washington Irving. Here, he published a hilarious (in hindsight, at least) newspaper article that has come to be known as "The Balloon Hoax." "On April 13, 1844, he published in the New York Sun . . . a tale in the form of a news item. It appeared under the caption "Astounding News by Electric Express via Norfolk! The Atlantic Crossed in Three days– Signal Triumph of Mr. Monck's Flying Machine . . ." (Asselineau, 413).He then published "The Raven" in the Evening Mirror. For the first time in his career, the public eye was captured by one of Poe's works. "The Raven" was published all over the country and even internationally. However, Poe pocketed only a few dollars for is pains.Now Poe was at his worst financially. He had no money, and no income. He was living in a shabby wooden cottage with Aunt Clemm and Virginia, who was dying of tuberculosis. He had no money for firewood or coal, resulting in Virginia's having to sleep in an unheated room. After six years of marriage, Virginia was going to die, and Poe was driven to distraction. Virginia died on January 30, 1847, and Poe broke down, though he felt somewhat relieved from the "horrible never-ending oscillation between hope and despair." :"Thus, like the hero of one of his own tales, he was constantly threatened and tortured by the pendulum of fate swinging between the extremes of the human condition. All his life he craved love and tenderness, but was doomed to lose in turn all the women he loved; his mother, Mrs. Stanard, Mrs. Allan, and Virginia. He longed for wealth and luxury, and yet, for all his talent and frenzied efforts, was condemned to destit...
