Marry in May, rue the day? When Edgar Allan Poe wed his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm on May 16th, 1836, he had little way of knowing what fodder he’d given the future gossip mongers of his day–and ours! From remarks about her tender age, their family ties, their lack of children, and his supposed affairs, the rumor mill would be busy turning for hundreds of years to come. But what about the real story?
Join Untapped Cities and Boroughs of the Dead on Saturday, May 16th, 2015 for “The Poe’s Greenwich Village,” a special edition of our historical walking tour from last year that steps into the Greenwich Village of the 1840s, where Edgar and Virginia Poe lived and worked. This tour will interweave some of Poe’s most famous tales with Greenwich Village’s macabre secret histories, all the while constantly striving to answer the question of what life was like for the Poes in mid-19th century New York, and sorting out the myths from the facts regarding their relationship and married life.
You will visit the site of three of their former homes, discover the places that inspired Poe, find out where he read “The Raven” for the first time in public, and learn of the scandals and triumphs he experienced while living in the Village — particularly the unfounded gossip of Edgar’s unprovable “love affairs” — all the while celebrating “a love that was more than love” on this fascinating, informative, and downright romantic walking tour.
