Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-01

predestined to literary creation and sor.
row Indeed in their veins ran the same
kindred blood, for a mystic distant kin
ship sweetened their associations. Mrs.
Whitman a Miss Sarah Helen Power
of Providence. r. H. six years Older
than Poe. the widow of John w. Whit
man. a Boston lawyer.
In IS4S a mutual friend introduced
them. and Poe. ever mystical. was haunt
ed by the belief that their fates were
preordainedly connected Il yielded at
once he writes. Ito an overwhelming
sense of fatality. From that hour | have
never been able to shake from my soul :
the belief that my destiny for good or
for evil either here or hereafter, is i'm
some measure interviewer with your
own
Hope was reborn in the starved poet
heart In her was food for his passion.
food for his genius in the reciprocal love
of beautiful talented woman. He wrote
her burning words. exquisite love letters.
monumental of their divine kinship or
soul - letters akin to the "Sonnets from
the Portuguese" letters rarely equaled
in the annals of love
Like true lovers, their intercourse was
at times stormy. At one time while Mrs.
Whitman hesitated to marry him, Poe at
tempted his life. She was determined
she would not marry him while he drank.
He promised not TO drink, and the we'd
ding day was appointed. weakened ny
his long suffering. and with his weak VIII
again she tried him, loving him through
all. mad for him, devoted to him.
Finally friends interviewed, letters OF re,
nunciation passed between them, and
Poe never saw her again.
Mrs Francis Sargent Osgood was an
other Poe lover and they cherished
poetic. platonic friendship for each other
Through the ISLANDERS of a mutual
friend they became estranged, but this
did not prohibit Mrs. Osgood from writ
ing in the most eulogistic terms of Poe.
During the Whitman period of Poe's life
there We're two other women both OF
whom he seemed to have loved as sisters.
One was Mrs. Annie Richmond of West
ford. II. L.: the other Miss Stella Robin
son, afterward Mrs. s. ID. Lewis, OF Bal
tmore.
Mrs. Lewis is we'll known to Poe liter
allure as one of the woman defenders or
his fair fame. She, like all the other
women who interested Poe or were In
terested in him. was of high intellectual
caliber. Mrs Richmond. Annie" to
whom Poe wrote many of his most beau
tiful poems apd letters. he met In Lowell
in the summer of 1S+S, while there on a
lecture tour. Mrs. GLENN lived with the
Richmonds. and they cared for her some
years after the death of Poe. So. lectur-
ing and writing, Poe, early in 1919, start
ed for Richmond, Va. his boyhood home.
Richmond received Poe with open arms.
1t was proud of its gifted adopted son.
With others he met his boyhood
sweetheart. Miss Elmira Royster Shell
ton now widow. and still with tender
spot in her heart toward the brilliant
poet. In a desultory manner he renew
ed his addresses to her. and somehow
they became engaged. Early in October.
1919, he started for the north to See
Middle" GLENN and wind up his affairs
there in order to arrange his marriage.
Stopping off i'm Baltimore on election
eve, he was drugged, voted as a re-
peater, contracted pneumonia, and in the
Church Home in that city. October d,
1879 1.-The fever called living was con-
quered at last" for Edgar Allan Poe.
And now, after the passing of fifty
two years. the sex that nurtured Poe
while he lived is to formally honor his
memory.