How did Poe's wife Virginia die?
While singing and playing the piano, Virginia began to bleed from the mouth, though Poe said that she merely "ruptured a blood-vessel". Her health declined and she became an invalid, which drove Poe into a deep depression, especially as she occasionally showed signs of improvement.
How old were Poe and Virginia when they got married?
Their only public ceremony was in Richmond on May 16, 1836, when they were married by a Presbyterian minister named Rev. Amasa Converse. Poe was 27 and Virginia was 13, though her age was listed as 21. This marriage bond was filed in Richmond and included an affidavit from Thomas W. Cleland confirming the bride's alleged age.
Why did the Poe family move from Virginia to Pennsylvania?
Virginia's condition might have been what prompted the Poe family to move, in the hopes of finding a healthier environment for her. They moved several times within Philadelphia in the early 1840s and their last home in that city is now preserved as the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site in Spring Garden.
Did Elizabeth F Ellet murder Virginia Poe?
A few years after their wedding, Poe was involved in a substantial scandal involving Frances Sargent Osgood and Elizabeth F. Ellet. Rumors about amorous improprieties on her husband's part affected Virginia Poe so much that on her deathbed she claimed that Ellet had murdered her.
How does Poe react to Virginia's death in 1847?
On January 29, 1847, Poe wrote to Shew: Kindest – dearest friend – My poor Virginia still lives, although failing fast and now suffering much pain. May God grant her life until she sees you and thanks you once again! Her bosom is full to overflowing – like my own – with a boundless – inexpressible gratitude to you.
What happened to Poe's second wife?
Poe came back into her life in 1848 and they renewed their relationship. Poe pressed her to marry him, though she was hesitant and her children did not approve....Sarah Elmira RoysterDiedFebruary 11, 1888 (aged 77–78) United StatesNationalityAmerican2 more rows
What happened to Poe in Fordham NY 1847?
1847 (Jan. 30) - Virginia Poe dies of tuberculosis in Fordham, New York.
What happened to Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe?
In 1842, Virginia became ill with tuberculosis. She died of the disease on January 30, 1847, at the age of 24.
Was Poe happily married?
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (née Clemm; August 15, 1822 – January 30, 1847) was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and publicly married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27. Biographers disagree as to the nature of the couple's relationship.
What tragedy befell her and how old was Poe?
What tragedy befell Poe's mother, and how old was Poe when it happened? She died of tuberculosis when Poe was almost 3 years old.
Why did Poe move to Fordham?
With the hope that country air might improve her condition, or at least make her final days more peaceful, Poe moved the family out to a small, shingled cottage in the picturesque woods and green pastures of Fordham Village - better known today as the Bronx.
How does Poe immortalize Virginia?
How did he immortalize Virginia during the last year of his own life? How does he handle his life now that Virginia is gone? He'd cry himself to sleep on her grave, laying there for hours. He handles his life badly.
Where did Virginia Poe live?
By January 1842 Virginia was showing signs of tuberculosis that led to her progressive disability and in May of 1846 Poe moved Virginia and Muddy to their final home which still stands in Fordham, New York.
Who was Edgar Allan Poe's wife?
Virginia Eliza. Clemm. Poe. Literary Folk Figure. She was the first cousin and the wife of Edgar Allan Poe. Virginia, the daughter of Poe's aunt Maria ("Muddy") Poe Clemm, was raised in Baltimore under conditions of poverty and first met Poe at age seven in 1829 shortly after he left the Army; Edgar lived with the family intermittently ...
What was Virginia's influence on Poe's literary output?
Virginia's influence on Poe's literary output is questioned; it is speculated that poem "Ulalume" is a memorial to her and she may have been the inspiration for "Annabel Lee" (1849) or the "lost Leonore" of 1845's "The Raven", though there are certainly other candidates.
What is Poe's pet name for her?
The exact nature of their marriage remains clouded and while some have speculated that theirs was a big brother-little sister relationship (Poe's pet name for her was "Sissy"), most accounts describe them as a happy, devoted, couple.
Overview
Biography
Virginia Eliza Clemm was born in 1822 and named after an older sister who had died at age two only ten days earlier. Her father William Clemm, Jr. was a hardware merchant in Baltimore. He had married Maria Poe, Virginia's mother, on July 12, 1817, after the death of his first wife, Maria's first cousin Harriet. Clemm had five children from his previous marriage and went on to have thre…
Effect and influence on Poe
Virginia's death had a significant effect on Poe. After her death, Poe was deeply saddened for several months. A friend said of him, "the loss of his wife was a sad blow to him. He did not seem to care, after she was gone, whether he lived an hour, a day, a week or a year; she was his all." A year after her death, he wrote to a friend that he had experienced the greatest evil a man can suffer when, he said, "a wife, whom I loved as no man ever loved before", had fallen ill. While Virg…
Notes
1. ^ Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 52. ISBN 0-7838-1401-1
2. ^ Silverman, 82
3. ^ Quinn, 17
4. ^ Silverman 81
External links
• Poe Family Tree at the Edgar Allan Poe Society online
• Virginia Clemm Poe from the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site online, National Park Service