Poe's Helen #245728

And those that were linked with him by ties of love, friendship, or even hate have thereby gained their lasting titles to literary immortality; titles to which Poe's tributes to their merits, set forth in the pages of his Literati, would never have insured them. Pre-eminent among the literary women who were closely associated with the poet stands Sarah Helen Whitman, presenting a mystical, poetic figure, quite as romantic as his own, whose claims to literary immortality should rest securely upon her own poetic contributions. The story of her brief engagement to Poe (the year before his death) has often been recounted, but her own story, so closely identified with that of the important men and women of her time, has, until now, remained untold.