Throwback: Edgar, Allan and Poe Hatch From Eggs in 1998 (2024)

FAQs

Who was Poe's second wife? ›

Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe

Edgar Allan Poe / Wife (m. 1836–1847)

In what is the only surviving letter from Poe to Virginia, dated June 12, 1846, he urged her to remain optimistic: "Keep up your heart in all hopelessness, and trust yet a little longer." Of his recent loss of the Broadway Journal, the only magazine Poe ever owned, he said, "I should have lost my courage but for you—my ...

On October 3, 1849, printer Joseph Walker found Poe inside or near Gunner's Hall tavern, and sent a note for J.E. Snodgrass, one of Poe's acquaintances in Baltimore.

Ironically, Poe's death was as mysterious and controversial as his stories and his life. Poe was found dishevelled in Baltimore—he was living in New York—and was taken unconscious to hospital. He lapsed in and out of consciousness for several days, until, with the words, “Lord help my poor soul,” Poe died aged 40.

Answer and Explanation: Many sources claim that Edgar Allan Poe's first love was Sarah Elmira Royster. As adolescents, they were secretly engaged, but Sarah's (also called Elmira), father found out and disapproved. Sarah ended up marrying somebody else.

Virginia Clemm Poe was 13 when she married the estranged author—an age, even in the 19th century, that proved too young. So young, in fact, that she forged her age, stating that she was 21 on their marriage certificate. Not only was little Virginia a young girl—she was also Edgar's first cousin.

Poe did not have any legitimate children with his wife/cousin, Virginia. However, there is a slim possibility that he had an illegitimate daughter with Frances Sargent Osgood, another poet from Boston. Frances was married to Samuel Osgood, an artist.

In 1836, when he was 27, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. She died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, he published his poem "The Raven" to instant success.

No death certificate seems to have been filed, and a local newspaper reported Poe's cause of death as “congestion of the brain,” supposed to be a euphemism for alcohol poisoning. Shortly after his death, Rufus Griswold, Poe's literary rival, wrote an obituary characterizing him as a morally bankrupt, drunken womanizer.

What is left at Edgar Allan Poe's grave? ›

The Toaster at the Grave

Starting in 1949 and lasting half a century, an anonymous person, affectionately known as the “Poe Toaster,” visited Edgar Allan Poe's gravesite on the eve of his birthday every year. The Toaster always left a partial bottle of cognac along with three roses at the site.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD

Edgar Allan Poe / Place of burial

Poe's work was likely inspired by his own tragic childhood; both of his parents died while he was very young, and his foster mother passed away when he was 20.

Theories regarding Edgar Allan Poe's death include alcoholism, drug overdose, rabies, carbon monoxide poisoning, epilepsy, meningitis, self-immolation, murder, cooping, delirium tremens brain tumor, diabetes, heart disease, and syphilis. Despite numerous speculations, the exact cause of Poe's death remains uncertain.

Poe is a small thin man, slightly formed, keen visaged with dark complexion, dark hair, and we believe dark eyes. His face is not an ordinary one” (John M. Daniel, The Semi-Weekly Examiner, August 21, 1849, quoted in The Poe Log, p. 827.)

Edgar Allan Poe's wife was named Virginia Clemm. She was actually Edgar's first cousin and she resembled his mother quite a bit, even sharing the name Eliza as a middle name. Edgar connected with Virginia when he lived with his aunt on and off for several years before the marriage.

Osgood identified Poe's wife, Virginia, as the real Annabel Lee, an attribution that has meet with much agreement. In contrast, T. O. Mabbott and other scholars have pointed out that although perhaps inspired, in part, by Virginia, Annabel Lee is a fictional character and need not truly represent any real person.

Poe's Relationship with Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton

The first woman to do so was Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton, rumored to have been his fiancée at the time of his death. Poe had known Shelton since childhood, when they were neighbors and first took a romantic interest in each other.

Eliza finally died on Sunday morning, December 8, 1811, at the age of twenty-four, surrounded by her children. It is generally assumed that she died of tuberculosis. She is buried at St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond.