Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878

Poet, friend of Edgar Allan Poe.

Consisting of correspondence, poetry, and newspaper articles of Whitman. The collection mainly consists of correspondence with Poe's biographers William Fearing Gill, John Henry Ingram, and Richard Henry Stoddard, but spiritualism and minor male and female writers, such as George William Curtis and Frances Sargent Osgood, are also represented.

Sarah Helen Whitman was an American poet and essayist and the author of a biography of Edgar Allan Poe.

1803 Jan 19 Birth of Sarah Helen Power. 1828 Jul 10 Marriage to John Winslow Whitman. 1829 First publication of a poem, "Retrospection," in Ladies Magazine. 1830 Beginning of the Providence literary circle, the "phalanstery," which would center around Sarah Helen Whitman for the rest of her life. 1833 Death of husband. 1845 Poe first sees Whitman in a garden and writes "To Helen." She responds to this sonnet and their correspondence begins. 1848 First meeting between Poe and Whitman. 1849 Engagement and rupture. 1853 Publication of Whitman's "Hours of Life, and Other Poems". 1860 Publication of Whitman's "Edgar Poe and His Critics". 1860 The beginning of inquiries by Poe's biographers to Whitman enlisting her aid in their work. These queries lasted throughout the rest of her life. 1878 Jun 27 Death of Sarah Helen Whitman. From the guide to the Sarah Helen Whitman papers, Whitman (Sarah Helen) papers, 1816-1878, 1816-1878, (Brown University Library Special Collections)