Student Question
How did Edgar Allan Poe's wife Lenore die?
Quick answer:
Edgar Allan Poe's wife, Virginia Clemm, died of tuberculosis in 1847. Poe never married a woman named Lenore; instead, Lenore is a character in his poems Lenore and The Raven. Poe often wrote about the death of beautiful women, influenced by his personal losses, including his mother, foster mother, and his young wife, Virginia.
Edgar Allan Poe never married a woman named Lenore. His only marriage was a secret one, in 1834, to his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm (they later married publicly).
Poe seems to have liked the name Lenore, however, because he used it to refer to a tragically dead woman in two of his poems: Lenore (1843) and The Raven (1845).
Both of these poems were written before Poe’s wife died in 1847, but in early 1842 she had showed the first signs of the tuberculosis and Poe was very affected by her illness.
The death of a beautiful woman is a frequent theme for Poe. He lost many women in his life in addition to his wife. His mother died of consumption when Poe was only 2. Poe went away to college for a year, and came home to find that his sweetheart had married another man. He then lost his foster mother when he was 20, and may not even have known that she was dying.
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