Virginia is gone.

After years of illness, Edgar Allan Poe loses the person who had quietly been at the centre of his world. But grief isn’t the end of his story. It’s the beginning of one of the most chaotic chapters of his life.

In this episode, we follow Edgar through the aftermath of Virginia’s death, his mental collapse, a surprising medical diagnosis, the publication of Eureka, and a whirlwind of relationships that have left historians arguing ever since, and ask whether Edgar was searching for love… or simply someone to help him keep going.

Because Virginia’s final request was heartbreakingly simple:

“Take care of my Eddie.”

Unfortunately, everyone had a different idea of what that meant.

New to Poe? Welcome.

Already obsessed? You're among the bros.

Edgar Allan Poe enters New York’s literary salon scene, meets celebrated poet Frances Sargent Osgood and immediately begins making choices with the discretion of a man firing a pistol in a drawing room.

What follows is poetry published in plain sight, private letters, public gossip, one extremely complicated pregnancy, Elizabeth Ellet inserting herself into everyone’s business, threats of legal action, a deeply unnecessary firearm and two literary men rolling over furniture.

But beneath the absurdity is a much sadder story about reputation, double standards, Virginia’s declining health and the way history has too often reduced Frances to a lovesick footnote in Edgar’s life.

New to Poe? Welcome.

Already obsessed? You're among the Bros.

Long before The Raven, before the literary feuds, and before the world knew his name, Edgar Allan Poe was just young man trying to find his place in it.

In Episode 3, we're following Poe through some of the most formative and turbulent years of his life. We'll explore his romance with Elmira Royster, his troubled relationship with John Allan, his brief time at the University of Virginia, and the debts and disappointments that would alter the course of his future.

Along the way, we'll watch Edgar leave Richmond, publish his book of poetry, enlist in the United States Army under an assumed named, and rise through the ranks before finding himself at West Point, where another chapter of his life would come to abrupt and dramatic end.

This is the story of a young man standing at a crossroads. A poet before he was a legend. A solider before he was and author, and a dreamer trying to become something more than the world expected of him.

New to Poe? Welcome.

Already obsessed? You're among the bros.