title: Mrs. Poe
author:  Lynn Cullen 
description: "When struggling poet and betrayed wife Frances Osgood meets Edgar Allen Poe, she is hoping only for a boost in her literary careercertainly not what came next. Swept into an illicit love affair with the complicated, magnetic, and married Poe, Osgood and Poe must together face the consequences, which are no less horrific or revenge-filled than his best loved horror storiesand quite possibly as deadly. <i>Mrs. Poe</i> had my heart racing...Don't miss it!" (Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants and Ape House)<br /><br />"<i>Mrs. Poe </i>is a compelling tale of ill-fated love, passion, and the writing life in antebellum New York, rich with period detail and suspense." (Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker)<br /><br />"Layered with the atmosphere and intensity of Poe's prose, Cullen's <i>Mrs. Poe</i> infuses a tale of tragedy and loss with a spirit of passion and vitality. Fans of historical fiction and Poe will devour this novel." (Erika Robuck, bestselling author of Call Me Zelda)<br /><br />Readers can expect a page-turning tale exposing the transgressions, antics, and heroics behind a literary icon. Literary fiction fans and readers who loved Paula McLains <i>The Paris Wife</i> will relish another novel based on historical scandal and romance.<i></i> (Library Journal (starred review))<br /><br />Is it true that Edgar Allen Poe cheated on his tubercular, insipid young wife with a lady poet hed met at a literary salon? Cullen makes you hope so. <i></i> (New York Times)<br /><br />"Lynn Cullen seems to have transported herself to Old New York<i>Mrs. Poe</i> feels that authentic. Without a doubt, this is one of the best historical fiction novels I've read in a long time. Evocative, compassionate, intelligent, sexy and utterly addictive. The passion between Frances Osgood and Edgar Allen Poe burns up the pages while at the same time her relationship with <i>Mrs. Poe</i> makes your heart ache. Truly a book to savor!" (M.J. Rose, International Bestselling Author)<br /><br />Part romance, part mystery, part biography, this fictional reenactment of the mistress of Edgar Allan Poe escorts you into the glittering world of New York in the 1840s, when poets were celebrities and the admission of emotionslike silk gowns and glossy beaver hatswere a luxury...A bewitching, vivid trip into the heyday of American literary society." (Oprah.com)<br /><br />"In <i>Mrs. Poe</i>, Lynn Cullen conjures a darkly atmospheric 19th century New York with a masterful hand. Rich with period detail and compelling characters, <i>Mrs. Poe</i> weaves a thread of creeping menace into the true story of Edgar Allan Poes obsessive liaison with Frances Osgood for a thoroughly unforgettable and chilling read. Enthralling." (Deanna Raybourn, author of A Spear of Summer Grass)<br /><br />"The fierce ambitions and dangerous rivalries of literary New York in the 1840s come vividly alive in Lynn Cullen's riveting novel <i>Mrs.Poe</i>. With masterful skill, Cullen tells the story of the real-life fatal attraction between the toast-of-the-town Gothic storyteller Edgar Allan Poe and vulnerable poet Frances Sargent Osgood.The fact that both are unhappily married did not sanction any sort of romance in this judgmental society, and Cullen skillfully charts the course of a fraught and forbidden love affair. As the lonely Mrs. Osgood is pulled further and further into Mr. Poe's dark world, the tensions in the Poes' bizarre marriage explode. Full of longing, this is a story both poignant and shockingand not easily forgotten." (Nancy Bilyeau, author of The Chalice)<br /><br />Clearly composed and carefully researched the books vivid prose accentuates the passion, jealousy and hatred that evolve from a tangled three-way relationship that could easily have come straight from the pages of Poes stories. A must-read for those intrigued by Poe, poetry and the latter half of 19th-century America. (RT Book Reviews (four stars))
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  The World of Edgar Allan Poe
  
    
  1809 |  Edgar Poe is born in Boston on January 19, the second child of David
  and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, both traveling stage actors. James Madison
  becomes the fourth president of the United States. Washington Irving publishes
  A History of New York... by Diedrich Knickerbocker.  Charles Darwin, Abraham
  Lincoln, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson are born.  
  ---|---  
  1810 1811 |  Apparently deserted by her husband, Elizabeth moves to Rich mond.
  Her oldest son, William Henry, lives with relatives in Baltimore, Maryland.
  Edgar’s sister, Rosalie Poe, is born in Norfolk, Virginia. On December 8
  Elizabeth Poe dies at the age of twenty-four, possibly of tuberculosis. David
  Poe, also ill and perhaps unaware of his wife’s death, apparently dies two
  days later in Norfolk. Rosalie is adopted into the home of William Mackenzie,
  while Edgar is taken into the household of John Allan, a wealthy tobacco
  mercha