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Virginia Eliza Poe (
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Clemm; August 15, 1822 – January 30, 1847) was the wife of American writer
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
. The couple were
first cousins Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...
and publicly married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27. Biographers disagree as to the nature of the couple's relationship. Though their marriage was loving, some biographers suggest they viewed one another more like a brother and sister. In January 1842, she contracted
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, growing worse for five years until she died of the disease at the age of 24 in the family's cottage, at that time outside
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Along with other family members, Virginia Clemm and Edgar Allan Poe lived together off and on for several years before their marriage. The couple often moved to accommodate Poe's employment, living intermittently in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, and
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
. A few years after their wedding, Poe was involved in a substantial scandal involving
Frances Sargent Osgood Frances Sargent Osgood ( née Locke; June 18, 1811 – May 12, 1850) was an American poet and one of the most popular women writers during her time.Silverman, 281 Nicknamed "Fanny", she was also famous for her exchange of romantic poems with Edga ...
and
Elizabeth F. Ellet Elizabeth Fries Ellet ( Lummis; October 18, 1818 – June 3, 1877) was an American writer, historian and poet. She was the first writer to record the lives of women who contributed to the American Revolutionary War. Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis, ...
. 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. After her death, her body was eventually placed under the same memorial marker as her husband's in
Westminster Hall and Burying Ground Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street (at North Greene Street) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It occupies the southeast corner of West Fayette and North Greene Street on ...
in Baltimore,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Only one image of Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe has been authenticated: a watercolor portrait painted several hours after her death. The disease and eventual death of his wife had a substantial effect on Edgar Allan Poe, who became despondent and turned to alcohol to cope. Her struggles with illness and death are believed to have affected his poetry and prose, where dying young women appear as a frequent motif, as in "
Annabel Lee "Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman.Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Sq ...
", "
The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a myste ...
", and "
Ligeia "Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Wor ...
".


Biography


Early life

Virginia Eliza Clemm was born in 1822 and named after an older sister who had died at age twoSilverman, 82 only ten days earlier. Her father William Clemm, Jr. was a hardware merchant in Baltimore.Silverman 81 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 three more with Maria. After his death in 1826, he left very little to the familyMeyers, 60 and relatives offered no financial support because they had opposed the marriage. Maria supported the family by sewing and taking in boarders, aided with an annual $240 pension granted to her mother Elizabeth Cairnes, who was paralyzed and bedridden. Elizabeth received this pension on behalf of her late husband, "General" David Poe, a former
quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In m ...
in Maryland who had loaned money to the state. Edgar Poe first met his cousin Virginia in August 1829, four months after his discharge from the Army. She was seven at the time.Sova, 52 In 1832, the family—made up of Elizabeth, Maria, Virginia, and Virginia's brother Henry—was able to use Elizabeth's pension to rent a home at what was then 3 North Amity Street in Baltimore. Poe's older brother William Henry Leonard Poe, who had been living with the family, had recently died on August 1, 1831. Poe joined the household in 1833 and was soon smitten by a neighbor named Mary Devereaux. The young Virginia served as a messenger between the two, at one point retrieving a lock of Devereaux's hair to give to Poe. Elizabeth Cairnes Poe died on July 7, 1835, effectively ending the family's income and making their financial situation even more difficult. Henry died around this time, sometime before 1836, leaving Virginia as Maria Clemm's only surviving child.Silverman, 323 In August 1835, Poe left the destitute family behind and moved to
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
to take a job at the ''
Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some vari ...
''. While Poe was away from Baltimore, another cousin, Neilson Poe, the husband of Virginia's half-sister Josephine Clemm, heard that Edgar was considering marrying Virginia. Neilson offered to take her in and have her educated in an attempt to prevent the girl's marriage to Edgar at such a young age, though suggesting that the option could be reconsidered later. Edgar called Neilson, the owner of a newspaper in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, his "bitterest enemy" and interpreted his cousin's actions as an attempt at breaking his connection with Virginia.Meyers, 72 On August 29, 1835, Edgar wrote an emotional letter to Maria, declaring that he was "blinded with tears while writing",Quinn, 219 and pleading that she allow Virginia to make her own decision. Encouraged by his employment at the ''Southern Literary Messenger'', Poe offered to provide financially for Maria, Virginia, and Henry if they moved to Richmond.


Marriage

Marriage plans were confirmed and Poe returned to Baltimore to file for a
marriage license A marriage license (or marriage licence in Commonwealth spelling) is a document issued, either by a religious organization or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between jurisdiction ...
on September 22, 1835. The couple might have been quietly married as well, though accounts are unclear.Silverman, 107 Their only public ceremony was in Richmond on May 16, 1836, when they were married by a Presbyterian minister named Rev.
Amasa Converse Amasa Converse (August 21, 1795 – December 9, 1872) was an American Presbyterian minister and senior editor of the ''Christian Observer''. Converse performed the marriage of Edgar Allan Poe to Poe's teenage cousin, Virginia Clemm Poe. Ea ...
.Meyers, 85 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 An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...
from Thomas W. Cleland confirming the bride's alleged age. The ceremony was held in the evening at the home of a Mrs. James Yarrington,Quinn, 254 the owner of the boarding house in which Poe, Virginia, and Virginia's mother Maria Clemm were staying. Yarrington helped Maria Clemm bake the wedding cake and prepared a wedding meal. The couple then had a short
honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...
in
Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg (along with the city of Colonial Heights) with Din ...
. Debate has raged regarding how unusual this pairing was based on the couple's age and blood relationship. Noted Poe biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn argues it was not particularly unusual, nor was Poe's nicknaming his wife "Sissy" or "Sis". Another Poe biographer,
Kenneth Silverman Kenneth Eugene Silverman (February 5, 1936 – July 7, 2017) was an American biographer and educator. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a Bancroft Prize for his 1984 biography of Cotton Mather, ''The Life and Times of Cotton Mather''. Silverman, who spe ...
, contends that though their
first-cousin marriage A cousin marriage is a marriage where the spouses are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies toda ...
was not unusual, her young age was. It has been suggested that Clemm and Poe had a relationship more like that between brother and sister than between husband and wife. Biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn disagreed with this view, citing a fervent love letter to argue that Poe "loved his little cousin not only with the affection of a brother, but also with the passionate devotion of a lover and prospective husband." Some scholars, including
Marie Bonaparte Princess Marie Bonaparte (2 July 1882 – 21 September 1962), known as Princess George of Greece and Denmark upon her marriage, was a French author and psychoanalyst, closely linked with Sigmund Freud. Her wealth contributed to the popularity ...
, have read many of Poe's works as autobiographical and have concluded that Virginia died a
virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
.Hoffman, 27 It has been speculated that she and her husband never consummated their marriage, although no evidence is given. This interpretation often assumes that Virginia is represented by the title character in the poem "
Annabel Lee "Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman.Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Sq ...
": a "maiden... by the name of Annabel Lee". Poe biographer Joseph Wood Krutch suggests that Poe did not need women "in the way that normal men need them", but only as a source of inspiration and care, and that Poe was never interested in women sexually. Friends of Poe suggested that the couple did not share a bed for at least the first two years of their marriage but that, from the time she turned 16, they had a "normal" married life until the onset of her illness.Sova, 53 Virginia and Poe were by all accounts a happy and devoted couple. Poe's one-time employer George Rex Graham wrote of their relationship: "His love for his wife was a sort of rapturous worship of the spirit of beauty." Poe once wrote to a friend, "I see no one among the living as beautiful as my little wife." She, in turn, by many contemporary accounts, nearly idolized her husband. She often sat close to him while he wrote, kept his pens in order, and folded and addressed his manuscripts. She showed her love for Poe in an
acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...
poem she composed when she was 23, dated February 14, 1846:


Osgood/Ellet scandal

The "tattling of many tongues" in Virginia's Valentine poem was a reference to actual incidents. In 1845, Poe had begun a flirtation with
Frances Sargent Osgood Frances Sargent Osgood ( née Locke; June 18, 1811 – May 12, 1850) was an American poet and one of the most popular women writers during her time.Silverman, 281 Nicknamed "Fanny", she was also famous for her exchange of romantic poems with Edga ...
, a married 34-year-old poet. Virginia was aware of the friendship and might even have encouraged it.Meyers, 190 She often invited Osgood to visit them at home, believing that the older woman had a "restraining" effect on Poe, who had made a promise to "give up the use of stimulants" and was never drunk in Osgood's presence. At the same time, another poet,
Elizabeth F. Ellet Elizabeth Fries Ellet ( Lummis; October 18, 1818 – June 3, 1877) was an American writer, historian and poet. She was the first writer to record the lives of women who contributed to the American Revolutionary War. Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis, ...
, became enamored of Poe and jealous of Osgood. Though, in a letter to
Sarah Helen Whitman Sarah Helen Power Whitman (January 19, 1803 – June 27, 1878) was an American poet, essayist, transcendentalist, spiritualist and a romantic interest of Edgar Allan Poe. Early life Whitman was born in Providence, Rhode Island on January 19, ...
, Poe called her love for him "loathsome" and wrote that he "could do nothing but repel twith scorn", he printed many of her poems to him in the ''
Broadway Journal The ''Broadway Journal'' was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan P ...
'' while he was its editor. Ellet was known for being meddlesome and vindictive, and, while visiting the Poe household in late January 1846, she saw one of Osgood's personal letters to Poe.Meyers, 191 According to Ellet, Virginia pointed out "fearful paragraphs" in Osgood's letter.Moss, 213 Ellet contacted Osgood and suggested she should beware of her indiscretions and asked Poe to return her letters, motivated either by jealousy or by a desire to cause scandal. Osgood then sent
Margaret Fuller Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movemen ...
and
Anne Lynch Botta Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta (November 11, 1815 – March 23, 1891) was an American poet, writer, teacher and socialite whose home was the central gathering place of the literary elite of her era. Biography Early life She was born Anne Charlotte ...
to ask Poe on her behalf to return the letters. Angered by their interference, Poe called them "Busy-bodies" and said that Ellet had better "look after her ''own'' letters", suggesting indiscretion on her part.Silverman, 290 He then gathered up these letters from Ellet and left them at her house. Though these letters had already been returned to her, Ellet asked her brother "to ''demand of me the letters''". Her brother, Colonel William Lummis, did not believe that Poe had already returned them and threatened to kill him. In order to defend himself, Poe requested a pistol from
Thomas Dunn English Thomas Dunn English (June 29, 1819 – April 1, 1902) was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who represented the state's 6th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895. He was also a published ...
. English, Poe's friend and a minor writer who was also a trained doctor and lawyer, likewise did not believe that Poe had already returned the letters and even questioned their existence. The easiest way out of the predicament, he said, "was a retraction of unfounded charges". Angered at being called a liar, Poe pushed English into a fistfight. Poe later claimed he was triumphant in the fight, though English claimed otherwise, and Poe's face was badly cut by one of English's rings. In Poe's version, he said, "I gave E. a flogging which he will remember to the day of his death." Either way, the fight further sparked gossip over the Osgood affair. Osgood's husband stepped in and threatened to sue Ellet unless she formally apologized for her insinuations. She retracted her statements in a letter to Osgood saying, "The letter shown me by Mrs Poe ''must have been a forgery''" created by Poe himself. She put all the blame on Poe, suggesting the incident was because Poe was "intemperate and subject to acts of lunacy".Silverman, 292 Ellet spread the rumor of Poe's insanity, which was taken up by other enemies of Poe and reported in newspapers. The St. Louis ''Reveille'' reported: "A rumor is in circulation in New York, to the effect that Mr. Edgar A. Poe, the poet and author, has been deranged, and his friends are about to place him under the charge of Dr. Brigham of the Insane Retreat at Utica." The scandal eventually died down only when Osgood reunited with her husband. Virginia, however, had been very affected by the whole affair. She had received anonymous letters about her husband's alleged indiscretions as early as July 1845. It is presumed that Ellet was involved with these letters, and they so disturbed Virginia that she allegedly declared on her deathbed that "Mrs. E. had been ermurderer."


Illness

By this time, Virginia had developed
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, first seen sometime in the middle of January 1842. 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. In a letter to a friend, Poe described his resulting mental state: "Each time I felt all the agonies of her death—and at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly & clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitive—nervous in a very unusual degree. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." 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 Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in the early 1840s and their last home in that city is now preserved as the
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is a preserved home once rented by American author Edgar Allan Poe, located at 532 N. 7th Street, in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though Poe lived in many houses over s ...
in Spring Garden.Silverman, 183 In this home, Virginia was well enough to tend the flower garden and entertain visitors by playing the harp or the piano and singing. The family then moved to New York sometime in early April 1844, traveling by train and steamboat. Virginia waited onboard the ship while her husband secured space at a boarding house on Greenwich Street. By early 1846, family friend
Elizabeth Oakes Smith Elizabeth Oakes Smith ( Prince; August 12, 1806 – November 16, 1893) was a poet, fiction writer, editor, lecturer, and women's rights activist whose career spanned six decades, from the 1830s to the 1880s. Most well-known at the start of her ...
said that Virginia admitted, "I know I shall die soon; I know I can't get well; but I want to be as happy as possible, and make Edgar happy." She promised her husband that after her death she would be his guardian angel.


Move to Fordham

In May 1846, the family (Poe, Virginia, and her mother, Maria) moved to a small
cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...
in Fordham, about fourteen miles outside the city, a home which is still standing today. 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 darling little wife you are my ''greatest'' and ''only'' stimulus now to battle with this uncongenial, unsatisfactory and ungrateful life."Meyers, 203 But by November of that year, Virginia's condition was hopeless. Her symptoms included irregular appetite, flushed cheeks, unstable pulse, night sweats, high fever, sudden chills, shortness of breath, chest pains, coughing and spitting up blood.
Nathaniel Parker Willis Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis,Baker, 3 was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfello ...
, a friend of Poe's and an influential editor, published an announcement on December 30, 1846, requesting help for the family, though his facts were not entirely correct:Meyers, 202 Willis, who had not corresponded with Poe for two years and had since lost his own wife, was one of his greatest supporters in this period. He sent Poe and his wife an inspirational Christmas book, ''The Marriage Ring; or How to Make a Home Happy''.Silverman, 324 The announcement was similar to one made for Poe's mother,
Eliza Poe Eliza Poe ( Elizabeth Arnold; formerly Hopkins; 1787 – December 8, 1811) was an English actress and the mother of the American author Edgar Allan Poe. Life and career Elizabeth Arnold was born to Henry and Elizabeth Arnold in London in th ...
, during her last stages of tuberculosis. Other newspapers picked up on the story: "Great God!", said one, "is it possible, that the literary people of the Union, will let poor Poe perish by starvation and lean faced beggary in New York? For so we are led to believe, from frequent notices in the papers, stating that Poe and his wife are both down upon a bed of misery, death, and disease, with not a ducat in the world." The ''
Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
'' asserted that Virginia was in a hopeless condition and that Poe was bereft: "It is said that Edgar A. Poe is lying dangerously with brain fever, and that his wife is in the last stages of consumption—they are without money and without friends." Even editor
Hiram Fuller Hiram Fuller a.k.a. Hesham Ali Salem (born May 13, 1981) is Libyan former professional basketball player, who grew up in the United States. He is a 6'9" (2.06 m), 268 lb (122 kg) power forward. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, he atte ...
, whom Poe had previously sued for
libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
, attempted in the ''New York Mirror'' to garner support for Poe and his wife: "We, whom he has quarrelled with, will take the lead", he wrote. Virginia was described as having dark hair and violet eyes, with skin so pale it was called "pure white", causing a "bad complexion that spoiled her looks". One visitor to the Poe family noted that "the rose-tint upon her cheek was too bright", possibly a symptom of her illness. Another visitor in Fordham wrote, "Mrs. Poe looked very young; she had large black eyes, and a pearly whiteness of complexion, which was a perfect pallor. Her pale face, her brilliant eyes, and her raven hair gave her an unearthly look." That unearthly look was mentioned by others who suggested it made her look not quite human.Krutch, 56
William Gowans William Gowans (March 29, 1803 - November 27, 1870) was a prominent antiquarian bookseller in New York City. In 1821, he emigrated to the USA with his family. Around 1837, he stayed as a boarder in the house where Edgar Allan Poe also lived. He ra ...
, who once lodged with the family, described Virginia as a woman of "matchless beauty and loveliness, her eye could match that of any
houri In Islamic religious belief, houris (Pronounced ; from ar, حُـورِيَّـة ,حُورِيّ, ḥūriyy, ḥūrīya), "literally means having eyes with marked contrast of black and white", group=Note are women with beautiful eyes describe ...
, and her face defy the genius of a
Canova Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the cl ...
to imitate". She might have been a little plump. Many contemporary accounts as well as modern biographers remark on her childlike appearance even in the last years of her life. While dying, Virginia asked her mother: "Darling... will you console and take care of my poor Eddy—you will ''never never'' leave him?" Her mother stayed with Poe until his own death in 1849. As Virginia was dying, the family received many visitors, including an old friend named Mary Starr. At one point Virginia put Starr's hand in Poe's and asked her to "be a friend to Eddy, and don't forsake him". Virginia was tended to by 25-year-old Marie Louise Shew. Shew, who served as a nurse, knew medical care from her father and her husband, both doctors. She provided Virginia with a
comforter A comforter (in American English), also known as a doona in Australian English, or a continental quilt (or simply quilt) or duvet in British English, is a type of bedding made of two lengths of fabric or covering sewn together and filled with in ...
as her only other cover was Poe's old military
cloak A cloak is a type of loose garment worn over clothing, mostly but not always as outerwear for outdoor wear, serving the same purpose as an overcoat, protecting the wearer from the weather. It may form part of a uniform. Cloaks have been and a ...
, as well as bottles of wine, which the invalid drank "smiling, even when difficult to get it down".Silverman, 326 Virginia also showed Poe a letter from Louisa Patterson, second wife of Poe's foster-father John Allan, which she had kept for years and which suggested that Patterson had purposely caused the break between Allan and Poe.


Death

On January 29, 1847, Poe wrote to Marie Louise Shew: "My poor Virginia still lives, although failing fast and now suffering much pain."Meyers, 206 Virginia died the following day, January 30, after five years of illness. Shew helped in organizing her funeral, even purchasing the coffin.Silverman, 327 Death notices appeared in several newspapers. On February 1, The New York ''Daily Tribune'' and the ''Herald'' carried the simple obituary: "On Saturday, the 30th ult., of pulmonary consumption, in the 25th year of her age, VIRGINIA ELIZA, wife of EDGAR A. POE." The funeral was February 2, 1847. Attendees included Nathaniel Parker Willis,
Ann S. Stephens Ann Sophia Stephens (March 10, 1810–August 20, 1886) was an American novelist and magazine editor. She was the author of dime novels and is credited as the progenitor of that genre. Early life Ann Sophia Stephens was born on March 30, 1 ...
, and publisher
George Pope Morris George Pope Morris (October 10, 1802 – July 6, 1864) was an American editor, poet, and songwriter. Life and work With Nathaniel Parker Willis, he co-founded the daily ''New York Evening Mirror''Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. New Y ...
. Poe refused to look at his dead wife's face, saying he preferred to remember her living. Though now buried at
Westminster Hall and Burying Ground Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street (at North Greene Street) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It occupies the southeast corner of West Fayette and North Greene Street on ...
, Virginia was originally buried in a
vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...
owned by the Valentine family, from whom the Poes rented their Fordham cottage. Only one image of Virginia is known to exist, for which the painter had to take her corpse as model. A few hours after her death, Poe realized he had no image of Virginia and so commissioned a portrait in
watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
. She is shown wearing "beautiful linen" that Shew said she had dressed her in;Phillips, 1203 Shew might have been the portrait's artist, though this is uncertain. The image depicts her with a slight double chin and with hazel eyes. The image was passed down to the family of Virginia's half-sister Josephine, wife of Neilson Poe. In 1875, the same year in which her husband's body was reburied, the cemetery in which she lay was destroyed and her remains were almost forgotten. An early Poe biographer, William Gill, gathered the bones and stored them in a box he hid under his bed. Gill's story was reported in the ''
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' twenty-seven years after the event: he says that he had visited the Fordham cemetery in 1883 at exactly the moment that the sexton Dennis Valentine held Virginia's bones in his shovel, ready to throw them away as unclaimed. Poe himself had died in 1849, and so Gill took Virginia's remains and, after corresponding with Neilson Poe and John Prentiss Poe in Baltimore, arranged to bring the box down to be laid on Poe's left side in a small bronze casket.Miller, John C.
The Exhumations and Reburials of Edgar and Virginia Poe and Mrs. Clemm
, from ''Poe Studies'', vol. VII, no. 2, December 1974, p. 47
Virginia's remains were finally buried with her husband's on January 19, 1885—the seventy-sixth anniversary of her husband's birth and nearly ten years after his current monument was erected. The same man who served as sexton during Poe's original burial and his exhumations and reburials was also present at the rites which brought his body to rest with Virginia and Virginia's mother Maria Clemm.


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 Virginia was still struggling to recover, Poe turned to alcohol after abstaining for quite some time. How often and how much he drank is a controversial issue, debated in Poe's lifetime and also by modern biographers. Poe referred to his emotional response to his wife's sickness as his own illness, and that he found the cure to it "in the ''death'' of my wife. This I can & do endure as becomes a man—it was the horrible never-ending oscillation between hope & despair which I could ''not'' longer have endured without the total loss of reason". Poe regularly visited Virginia's grave. As his friend Charles Chauncey Burr wrote, "Many times, after the death of his beloved wife, was he found at the dead hour of a winter night, sitting beside her tomb almost frozen in the snow". Shortly after Virginia's death, Poe courted several other women, including Nancy Richmond of
Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...
,
Sarah Helen Whitman Sarah Helen Power Whitman (January 19, 1803 – June 27, 1878) was an American poet, essayist, transcendentalist, spiritualist and a romantic interest of Edgar Allan Poe. Early life Whitman was born in Providence, Rhode Island on January 19, ...
of
Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
, and childhood sweetheart
Sarah Elmira Royster Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton (1810 – February 11, 1888) was an adolescent sweetheart of Edgar Allan Poe who became engaged to him shortly before his death in 1849. Their early relationship, begun when she was 15, ended due to the interfer ...
in Richmond. Even so, Frances Sargent Osgood, whom Poe also attempted to woo, believed "that irginiawas the only woman whom he ever loved".


References in literature

Many of Poe's works are interpreted autobiographically, with much of his work believed to reflect Virginia's long struggle with tuberculosis and her eventual death. The most discussed example is "
Annabel Lee "Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman.Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Sq ...
". This poem, which depicts a dead young bride and her mourning lover, is often assumed to have been inspired by Virginia, though other women in Poe's life are potential candidates including Frances Sargent Osgood and Sarah Helen Whitman. A similar poem, "
Ulalume "Ulalume" () is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1847. Much like a few of Poe's other poems (such as " The Raven", " Annabel Lee", and " Lenore"), "Ulalume" focuses on the narrator's loss of his beloved due to her death. Poe originally wrote t ...
", is also believed to be a memorial tribute to Virginia, as is " Lenore", whose title character is described as "the most lovely dead that ever died so young!" After Poe's death,
George Gilfillan __NOTOC__ Rev George Gilfillan (30 January 1813 – 13 August 1878) was a Scottish author and poet. One of the spasmodic poets, Gilfillan was also an editor and commentator, with memoirs, critical dissertations in many editions of earlier Britis ...
of the London-based ''Critic'' said Poe was responsible for his wife's death, "hurrying her to a premature grave, that he might write 'Annabel Lee' and '
The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a myste ...
'". However, "The Raven" was written and published two years before Virginia's death. Virginia is also seen in Poe's prose. The
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
"
Eleonora Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...
" (1842)—which features a narrator preparing to marry his cousin, with whom he lives alongside her mother—may also refer to Virginia's illness. When Poe wrote it, his wife had just begun to show signs of her illness. It was shortly thereafter that the couple moved to New York City by boat and Poe published " The Oblong Box" (1844). This story, which shows a man mourning his young wife while transporting her corpse by boat, seems to suggest Poe's feelings about Virginia's impending death. As the ship sinks, the husband would rather die than be separated from his wife's corpse. The short story "
Ligeia "Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Wor ...
", whose title character suffers a slow and lingering death, may also be inspired by Virginia.Hoffman, 255–256 After his wife's death, Poe edited his first published story, "
Metzengerstein "Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German" is a short story by American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, his first to see print. It was first published in the pages of Philadelphia's ''Saturday Courier'' magazine, in 1832. The story follo ...
", to remove the narrator's line, "I would wish all I love to perish of that gentle disease", a reference to tuberculosis.


References in music

In track 9 of their 2008 debut album ''
Le Pop ''Le Pop'' is the debut studio album by Norwegian band Katzenjammer. It was released on September 29, 2008, by Propeller Recordings. Reception Critical reception The album received generally favorable reviews. Adrien Begrand from PopMatters ...
'', Norwegian band Katzenjammer performed a song entitled "Virginia Clemm". Set to the tune of a musical clock, the song's lyrics refer to Virginia's early marriage at 13 years of age ("He was a child I was a child / Sentimental and wild"), to her husband's alleged affairs ("The other woman to explain / Her letters I deplore"), to her untimely death ("For twelve short years / We lived out of health"), to the band's perceived obsessions of Poe's subsequent obsession with his wife's death ("Heir of my illness / Writer of all the stories and the words / That I'm haunting / That I'm haunting") as well as alluding, in the last verse ("And I'll leave you nevermore"), to the poem "
The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a myste ...
".


Notes


References

*Hoffman, Daniel. ''Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. . *Krutch, Joseph Wood. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. *Moss, Sidney P. ''Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Literary Milieu''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1969. * Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. Cooper Square Press, 1992. . *Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. ''The Literary History of Philadelphia''. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906. . *Phillips, Mary E. ''Edgar Allan Poe: The Man''. Chicago: The John C. Winston Company, 1926. *Quinn, Arthur Hobson. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. *Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. . *Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work''. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. .


External links


Poe Family Tree
at the Edgar Allan Poe Society online

from the
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is a preserved home once rented by American author Edgar Allan Poe, located at 532 N. 7th Street, in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though Poe lived in many houses over s ...
online,
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poe, Virginia 1822 births 1847 deaths 19th-century American women 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Burials at Westminster Hall and Burying Ground Poe family (United States) Tuberculosis deaths in New York (state) People from Baltimore