Poe & Fanny: A Novel

The Story

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary from The Raven, by Edgar Allan PoeIn 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 inspirationA richly imagined debut novel, Poe & Fanny, brings New Yorks giddy pre-Civil War social scene into brilliant focus as it explores the tragic life and loves of one of Americas great literary figures.