Sarah Helen Power Whitman (January 19, 1803 - June 27, 1878), was a poet, essayist, transcendentalist, Spiritualist and a romantic interest of Edgar Allan Poe.
Whitman was born in Providence, Rhode Island on January 19, 1803, exactly six years before Poe's birth. In 1828, she married the poet and writer John Winslow Whitman. John had been co-editor of the Boston Spectator and Ladies' Album, which allowed Sarah to publish some of her poetry using ...
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Sarah Helen Power Whitman (January 19, 1803 - June 27, 1878), was a poet, essayist, transcendentalist, Spiritualist and a romantic interest of Edgar Allan Poe.
Whitman was born in Providence, Rhode Island on January 19, 1803, exactly six years before Poe's birth. In 1828, she married the poet and writer John Winslow Whitman. John had been co-editor of the Boston Spectator and Ladies' Album, which allowed Sarah to publish some of her poetry using the name "Helen". John died in 1833; he and Sarah never had children.
Sarah Helen Whitman had a heart condition that she treated with ether she breathed in through her handkerchief.
Whitman was friends with Margaret Fuller and other intellectuals in New England. She became interested in transcendentalism through this social group and after hearing Ralph Waldo Emerson lecture in Boston, Massachusetts and in Providence. She also became interested in science, mesmerism, and the occult. She had a penchant for wearing black and a coffin-shaped...
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