Gator
Gators Club
Posts: 4,865
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Post by Gator on Aug 14, 2018 23:08:19 GMT -5
Virginia Clemm Poe (1822)
When she was just 13, Virginia Clemm married her first cousin Edgar Allan Poe, who was 14 years her senior. For years, scholars have debated about the nature of this relationship, which was cut short when Virginia tragically died of tuberculosis at 24. Edgar was clearly smitten by his young bride—and muse—and was devastated by her death. Still, some believe that the two were more like siblings than spouses and never actually consummated their marriage. What has led them to this conclusion?
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Nanna
Secretary of State Level 3
Posts: 183
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Post by Nanna on Aug 18, 2018 20:41:31 GMT -5
Debate has raged regarding how unusual this pairing was based on the couple's age and blood relationship. Noted Poe biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn argues it was not particularly unusual, nor was Poe's nicknaming his wife "Sissy" or "Sis".[28] Another Poe biographer, Kenneth Silverman, contends that though their first-cousin marriage was not unusual, her young age was.[22] It has been suggested that Clemm and Poe had a relationship more like that between brother and sister than between husband and wife.[29] Biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn disagreed with this view, citing a fervent love letter to argue that Poe "loved his little cousin not only with the affection of a brother, but also with the passionate devotion of a lover and prospective husband."[30] Some scholars, including Marie Bonaparte, have read many of Poe's works as autobiographical and have concluded that Virginia died a virgin.[31] It has been speculated that she and her husband never consummated their marriage, although no evidence is given .
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Eliza_Clemm_Poe
Poe regularly visited Virginia's grave. As his friend Charles Chauncey Burr wrote, "Many times, after the death of his beloved wife, was he found at the dead hour of a winter night, sitting beside her tomb almost frozen in the snow".
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