We meet Poe with clarity—not spectacle. Much of what the world believes about Edgar Allan Poe traces to a hostile obituary and a rival’s memoir. This narrated essay restores balance using first-hand voices—Sarah Helen Whitman, George R. Graham, and biographer William F. Gill—so we can meet the real Poe: disciplined, devoted, and misrepresented.
Meeting location: a non-physical “Resonant Salon”—a safe overlap space for dialogue (not the Villa Montezuma).
What’s inside
• The smear vs. the record
• The Resonant Salon (not the Villa)
• The meeting
• Voices who knew him (Whitman, Graham, Gill)
• Why it matters now
Sources (primary)
• W. F. Gill, The Life of Edgar Allan Poe (1878) — preface rebuttal
• George R. Graham, “The Late Edgar Allan Poe” (1850) — friend/editor testimony
• Sarah Helen Whitman, Edgar Poe and His Critics (1860) — “great wrong to the dead”
• Griswold’s “Ludwig” obituary (1849) — origin of the distortion
Explore further
Soul Purpose Report → https://www.bonnievent.com/product-page/soul-purpose-report-by-medium-bonnie-vent
“Lanterns, not torches.”