Quoth the Raven, “Baltimore.” One of the Providence Athenaeum’s most famous visitors was Edgar Allan Poe and January 19th is his birthday. He shares the date with someone special.
In 1848, he traveled to Providence to meet and court the wealthy widow Sarah Helen Whitman, who lived on Benefit Street. Whitman was a poet and an avid reader who spent much of her time at the Athenæum. Poe eventually convinced her to marry him with a series of impassioned love letters and promises of sobriety. During his trips to Providence, the couple would spend time together in the Athenæum.
There is so much more to this story. Go here for the Athenaeum’s history of Poe and Whitman.
And Happy Birthday Sarah Helen Whitman . . . also January 19th.