CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.PAGE.
First Glimpse of Edgar Poe[1]
CHAPTER II.
Poe's First Home[9]
CHAPTER III.
The Allan Home[13]
CHAPTER IV.
Poe's Boyhood[20]
CHAPTER V.
Schoolboy Love Affairs[36]
CHAPTER VI.
Rosalie Poe[41]
CHAPTER VII.
The Unrest of Youth[44]
CHAPTER VIII.
In Barracks[52]
CHAPTER IX.
Poe and Mrs. Allan[57]
CHAPTER X.
The Closing of the Gate[61]
CHAPTER XI.
Mrs. Clemm[64]
CHAPTER XII.
A Pretty Girl with Auburn Hair Whom PoeLoved[70]
CHAPTER XIII.
Poe's Double Marriage[74]
CHAPTER XIV.
The Poes in Richmond[82]
CHAPTER XV.
In New York[88]
CHAPTER XVI.
The Real Virginia[90]
CHAPTER XVII.
Poe's Philadelphia Home[90]
CHAPTER XVIII.
Virginia's Illness[102]
CHAPTER XIX.
Back to New York[108]
CHAPTER XX.
Poe and Mrs. Osgood[119]
CHAPTER XXI.
At Fordham[127]
CHAPTER XXII.
The Shadow at the Door[137]
CHAPTER XXIII.
Mrs. Shew[145]
CHAPTER XXIV.
Quiet Life at Fordham[148]
CHAPTER XXV.
With Old Friends[154]
CHAPTER XXVI.
Mrs. Whitman[169]
CHAPTER XXVII.
Again in Richmond[179]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A Morning with Poe—"The Raven"[184]
CHAPTER XXIX.
Mrs. Shelton[194]
CHAPTER XXX.
The Mystery of Fate[203]
CHAPTER XXXI.
After the War[212]
CHAPTER XXXII.
Poe's Character[219]
Appendix[227]

TO THE READER.

In considering this book, will the reader especially note that it is not a "Life" or a "Biography" of Poe, of which too many already exist and to which nothing can be added after the exhaustive works of Woodbury and Prof. Harrison. I have not treated Poe in his character of poet or author, but confined myself to his private home-life, domestic and social, as I have heard it described by Poe's most intimate friends who knew him from infancy—some of them my own relatives—and from my own brief knowledge of him in the last three months of his life. The book may therefore be considered as a supplement to the more complete "Lives and Biographies," showing Poe in a character as yet wholly unknown to the public, but which should be known in order to enable us to form a correct judgment of his character. I have corrected various misstatements of writers which, repeated by one from another, have come to be received as truth.

I have made no attempt at producing an artistic work, but have treated the subject as it demands, in a plain and practical manner with regard to facts apart from idealism of any kind.

The Author.