When you hear the name Edgar Allan Poe, "a romantic" is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. After all ... this IS the writer who practically invented modern horror tales & described a raven's eyes as having: “all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming” (yikes!)...
But behind this scary facade was, apparently... a romantic -- and one chapter of Poe's, albeit tragic love-story unfolded inside one of New England’s most beautiful libraries.
The Providence Athenæum stands on Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, looking more like the private library of a fictional wizard than a modern community institution.
Inside are classical busts, hidden desks, upper galleries and shelves stretching toward the ceiling.
In 1848, the library became the setting for Poe’s ill-fated romance with a woman named Sarah Helen Whitman, a Providence poet, widow and intellectual known for her interest in spiritualism and the occult.
Poe had reportedly first seen Sarah in a rose garden years earlier, but their courtship truly began through poetry. In fact, Sarah wrote a Valentine poem for him, and Poe responded with a new version of “To Helen,” inspired in part by her.
The two began exchanging intense letters and poems, and Poe eventually proposed, in a way fit for only EAP -- A CEMETERY (!)
Sarah reluctantly agreed to marry him, on one condition -- that he remained sober.
But since I promised a tragic love story... just days before they were set to marry, Sarah received word inside the library that Poe had broken his promise to stop drinking. So she called him to the Athenæum, called off their engagement, and the two never spoke again - and Poe died the year after.
Nearly two centuries later, the Providence Athenæum remains a working library, literary landmark and one of the most atmospheric places in New England.
You can visit for a suggested donation of just $5 and be transported to a time before dating apps—when one of the world’s most ominous writers fell in love, got engaged and ultimately heard his own version of…
Nevermore.
