"Mrs. Poe"

Lynn Cullen is the author of Reign of Madness, a 2011 Best of the South selection by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 2012 Townsend Prize finalist, and The Creation of Eve, named among the best fiction books of 2010 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and an Indie Next selection. She is also the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including the young adult novel I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, which was a 2007 Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection and an ALA Best Book of 2008.

Cullen applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Mrs. Poe, and reported the following:

It is 1845. On page 69, the reader gets an inside view of the Manhattan home inhabited by Edgar Allan Poe, his 23-year-old wife of 10 years, and his mother-in-law/ aunt, Maria Clemm. (Yes, he married his 13-year-old first cousin.) The tension within this strange household is palpable to the narrator, writer Frances Osgood, who is at the Poe abode on assignment. In her desperation to provide for her children, the newly single Osgood has agreed to write a feature for the New York Tribune about the man whom ‘The Raven’ has catapulted into stardom. Osgood had been given the prize job when mutual friends noticed that Poe had taken a liking to her…and Poe doesn’t like anyone.

In this scene, as Frances Osgood examines a picture of the Boston Harbor with Virginia Poe, her pride in being Poe’s chosen one is melting into something more like discomfort. Please note that the details in this glimpse into Poe’s world are true-to-life. Although fiction, Mrs. Poe chronicles how Poe went from the most famous writer in America to a reviled pariah within the space of a single year. Join Frances now as she descends into the odd circle within the threadbare Poe residence.

Learn more about the book and author at Lynn Cullen's website.

My Book, The Movie: Mrs. Poe.

--Marshal Zeringue