Did You Know That Edgar Allan Poe Had
a Scandalous Romance With a Providence Poet?

The tortured poet’s tell-tale heart fell for fellow writer Sarah Helen Whitman in 1848

Edgar Allan Poe met and courted Providence poet Sarah Helen Whitman in 1848 after they bonded over literature and their shared fascination of the afterlife.
Ultima Thule daguerreotype/John Nelson Arnold, Brown University
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Edgar Allan Poe met and courted Providence poet Sarah Helen Whitman in 1848 after they bonded over literature and their shared fascination of the afterlife.
Ultima Thule daguerreotype/John Nelson Arnold, Brown University
Did You Know That Edgar Allan Poe Had
a Scandalous Romance With a Providence Poet?
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Edgar Allan Poe really was the epitome of a tortured poet, having a tragic upbringing with his father abandoning his family and his mother dying when he was only 2 years old. The Boston-born writer led a very unconventional life, including a scandalous relationship with a Rhode Island poet.

After publishing “The Raven” in 1845, Poe became a household name. That same year he met fellow poet Sarah Helen Whitman during a short trip to Providence. Poe bonded with the well-known Providence poet, essayist, spiritualist, and transcendentalist over their shared love for literature and their fascination with the afterlife.

Poe proposed to Whitman in a local cemetery in 1848 and was rejected, but she relented after several more attempts. But the wedding never came to pass, and Poe died less than a year later.

Get the full story in the reel below.

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