Virginia 'Sissy' Clemm falls in love with her cousin Edgar Allan Poe when she's merely a girl of seven. Fourteen years her elder, he's dark and brooding, the picture of a little girl's romantic fantasy. He floats in and out of her childhood, as he fails his way through West Point, the military and a succession of editorial jobs where his talents aren't appreciated. Each time he returns, their odd friendship grows stronger, and her understanding of the moody, troubled writer takes on new and strange dimensions. But her childhood crush takes a serious turn, when he proposes marriage at 13. Her mother objects, but Sissy cannot be swayed. She devotes her young life to Edgar Allan Poe. This provocative novel explores the curious and confounding relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and his child bride Sissy, who, before she died of consumption at age 25, was Poe's constant companion, critic and friend. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, explores the inner life of one of literature's most heralded and haunted figures by imagining the heart of the woman who loved him, inspired him and undid him.

Virginia 'Sissy' Clemm falls in love with her cousin Edgar Allan Poe when she's merely a girl of seven. Fourteen years her elder, he's dark and brooding, the picture of a little girl's romantic fantasy. He floats in and out of her childhood, as he fails his way through West Point, the military and a succession of editorial jobs where his talents aren't appreciated. Each time he returns, their odd friendship grows stronger, and her understanding of the moody, troubled writer takes on new and strange dimensions. But her childhood crush takes a serious turn, when he proposes marriage at 13. Her mother objects, but Sissy cannot be swayed. She devotes her young life to Edgar Allan Poe. This provocative novel explores the curious and confounding relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and his child bride Sissy, who, before she died of consumption at age 25, was Poe's constant companion, critic and friend. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, explores the inner life of one of literature's most heralded and haunted figures by imagining the heart of the woman who loved him, inspired him and undid him.

Virginia 'Sissy' Clemm falls in love with her cousin Edgar Allan Poe when she's merely a girl of seven. Fourteen years her elder, he's dark and brooding, the picture of a little girl's romantic fantasy. He floats in and out of her childhood, as he fails his way through West Point, the military and a succession of editorial jobs where his talents aren't appreciated. Each time he returns, their odd friendship grows stronger, and her understanding of the moody, troubled writer takes on new and strange dimensions. But her childhood crush takes a serious turn, when he proposes marriage at 13. Her mother objects, but Sissy cannot be swayed. She devotes her young life to Edgar Allan Poe. This provocative novel explores the curious and confounding relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and his child bride Sissy, who, before she died of consumption at age 25, was Poe's constant companion, critic and friend. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, explores the inner life of one of literature's most heralded and haunted figures by imagining the heart of the woman who loved him, inspired him and undid him.