Edgar Allan Poe enters New York’s literary salon scene, meets celebrated poet Frances Sargent Osgood and immediately begins making choices with the discretion of a man firing a pistol in a drawing room.

What follows is poetry published in plain sight, private letters, public gossip, one extremely complicated pregnancy, Elizabeth Ellet inserting herself into everyone’s business, threats of legal action, a deeply unnecessary firearm and two literary men rolling over furniture.

But beneath the absurdity is a much sadder story about reputation, double standards, Virginia’s declining health and the way history has too often reduced Frances to a lovesick footnote in Edgar’s life. So grab a whiskey, hide your letters and join me as we untangle one of the messiest chapters in the PoeVerse.

New to Poe? Welcome.

Already obsessed? ...