 Today Griswold 's name is usually associated with Poe 's as a character assassin , although not all believe that Griswold deliberately intended to cause harm . Some of the information that Griswold asserted or implied was that Poe was expelled from the University of Virginia and that Poe had tried to seduce his guardian John Allan 's second wife . Even so , Griswold 's attempts only drew attention to Poe 's work ; readers were thrilled at the idea of reading the works of an " evil " man . Griswold 's characterization of Poe and the false information he originated appeared consistently in Poe biographies for the next two decades . 
