Hazelton, George Cochrane. The Raven : The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe ('Twixt Fact and Fancy). New York: D. Appleton and Co, 1909.

Starts off with a young Edgar and his mother dying.  Of note, Poe is described as handsome in the beginning. Moves on to Edgar’s time in University of Virginia. There is a lot of courting Virginia with romantic words exchanged between them.  There is another suitor, Pelham, who tries to undermine Poe in hopes of getting Virginia for himself. Pelham remains a constant enemy. Sometimes it reads like a biography.  Contains excerpts from Poe’s work. 

In the beginning, Poe appears in good spirits.  He is still with the Allen’s while courting Virginia.  Society in Richmond like him.  As time progresses, things aren’t quite so wonderful as they were in the beginning.  He starts to have dark visions which he turns into his stories.  He writes “The Raven” following Virginia’s death.  Then comes Helen Whitmore whom looks like Virginia.  Love is not so sweet this time around, and although they try, Poe is still in too much agony over Virginia. His drinking, gambling and huge debts are also shown. 

Poe is polite and an extreme romantic. He is proud, but is nice to people.  The book contains some vulgar racist language which of course was common of the time.  Poe owns a slave, one which he bought to save from being whipped. The story does not strictly adhere to what we know of Poe’s life today.