The Home Life of Poe

The author draws on interviews with intimate friends and personal recollection to present Edgar Allan Poe's private domestic and social life rather than his literary work. Organized largely chronologically, the narrative follows childhood and adoption, schooling and military episodes, close family ties and marriages, residences in several cities, episodes of illness and quiet household routine. Anecdotes, corrections of public misconceptions, and contemporaneous reminiscences illuminate temperament, habits, and relationships with relatives and neighbors. A concluding chapter and appendix offer consolidated assessments of character intended to supplement more formal literary biographies.