Poe & Fanny - Softcover

May, John

3.45

157 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452286018 ISBN 13: 9780452286016

Publisher: Plume, 2005

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

?Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary??
?from ?The Raven?, by Edgar Allan Poe

In 1845, Edgar Allen Poe published ?The Raven,? was embraced by the New York literati, founded his own magazine, and allegedly began an affair with Frances ?Fanny? Sargent Osgood. By the end of the year, Poe would leave New York City a ruined man, deeply in debt, and a virtual outcast spurned by a circle that included Horace Greeley, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In Poe & Fanny, John May envisions the love affair using their own flirtatious poetry as inspiration

A richly imagined debut novel, Poe & Fanny, brings New York?s giddy pre-Civil War social scene into brilliant focus as it explores the tragic life and loves of one of America?s great literary figures.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

At age fifty, after years in business, John May began pursuing a writing career, returning to school and finally earning a masters in fiction writing. This was followed by months researching what became Poe & Fanny. Now sixty-two, he divides his time running his company and working on a new novel.

From the Inside Flap:

In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, published his acclaimed poem "The Raven," became the overnight darling of New York literary society, and fell in love with a beautiful—and equally famous—poet. It was the year that ruined him forever.

John May's perfectly imagined novel brings New Yor's giddy pre-Civil War social scene into brilliant focus as it unfolds the spellbinding story of a doomed man and the great love that sealed his fate. By the end of what should have been his crowning year, Edgar Poe was reviled by the same capricious circles that had gathered adoringly at his feet to hear him recite "The Raven" again and again. Swept up in the fervor, Frances Sargent Osgood, then separated from her husband, arranged an introduction to Poe to offer her fealty and her friendship. But what eventually transpired between them was far more than two poets' mutual admiration. Over the course of their brief liaison, the two lovers wrote and published (under pseudonyms) many not-so-veiled love poems, and soon enough, New York's literati were abuzz with their affair.

While Poe dallied, his dying wife, Sissy, and her mother were humiliated. And while he despaired, drinking himself into oblivion, Poe's dream of editing his own magazine in New York died on the vine. At the turn of the year, the Poes left New York in disgrace. Deeply in debt and spurned by former fawning admirers, including Horace Greeley, N.P. Willis, William Cullen Bryant, Richard Henry Dana, and Maria Child, American's most renowned writer was a broken man. He had wrecked two women's lives. Even so, both Fanny and Sissy loved him unremittingly to the bitter end. Poe died at the age of forty, alone and having never fathered a child. Or had he?

Told with special empathy for Fanny's warm, impulsive generosity as it shimmered alongside Poe's dark genius, Poe & Fanny follows the lovers' story to its logical conclusion: Fanny Osgood's third child was Edgar Allan Poe's.

John May brings to life the drama of these lives acted out against the backdrop of nineteenth century New York's vibrant literary world.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.