One Thing Leads to Another... Poe and Tolle? What?

Edgar Allan Poe is known for is macabre genre, not a favorite of mine. I was in the Bronx and decided to visit  Poe's Cottage, the home he was renting when he died.  His mother-in-law "and aunt" (Oh my!)  allowed him to marry her 13 year old daughter when he was 26. It was said he had a brother/sister love for his wife and that it was platonic. (Virginia lied on her marriage certificate to say she was 21 years old.)  The daughter's marriage came with a package deal, her mother, her family had become destitute recently.  So EAP became responsible for the financial keep of them both. His wife, Virginia, was a child, and Edgar was devoted to her.  Unfortunately she died of TB only 11 years after their marriage.  Virginia was only 23 years old.

The cottage was rented for $100 a year.  EAP moved his family there for health reasons for his dying wife, in hopes she would recover.  Still Virginia died 8 months after they moved in much to Edgar's sorrow. Edgar continued to travel to Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, etc, reading his poetry and trying to make money. His mother-in-law continued to live at the cottage in his absence. When Edgar was found dead, there was no conclusive evidence of the cause. So his death is a mystery, much like the detective stories he wrote. Maria Poe, his mother-in-law continued to live there until the three years rent was up. She then sold furniture out of the cottage to get money to go back to Baltimore, MD where she had family and lived out her days there.

Now there were poetry societies in NYC and EAP belonged to this group. As editor of a paper, he read and published a few of his favorites.  Two female poets, Frances Osgood and Elizabeth F. Ellet lived in the city and visited EAP and Virginia to discuss poetry and writing.  Both ladies were married at the time and Virginia was fond of Frances.  EAP and Frances seen to be kindred spirits and had fun writing each other poems in letters to one another. Virginia knew and supported their friendship.  Elizabeth became jealous of their relationship and started a scandal that almost cost all of them their marriages.  Later Mr. Osgood would file a legal suit to have Elizabeth retract her scandalous lies and she did. This saved the marriages involved but left a scar on EAP reputation.

Now when I tell you one thing leads to another, I wrote earlier I wanted to know more about women and the history of their lives in the making of American history.  It turns out that Elizabeth Ellet studied diaries and letters, one of the first authors to do this, and compiled a book of this very thing, entitled The Women of the American Revolution.  I am thrilled and intend to get this book if I can find it.  If not for this scandal I might never have heard of her and her books. One thing leads to another...

And to my surprise I find I like EAP short stories!  He is a great writer. You know I bought a book while there, Great Short Works of EAP. I've been reading it and find I like Mr Edgar Poe.

And this makes me think he knew Eckhart Tolle...