February 11, 1888 – Sarah Elmira Royster, aka “the Widow Shelton,” also widely known as “the first and last love of Edgar Allan Poe” since her obituary described her thus, was laid to rest never having what she referred to as “bliss on Earth” because Poe, her first and last love, died a few days before the wedding for which they’d both waited almost 25 years.
“The pleasure I had anticipated on his return … was too great ever to be realized, and should teach me the folly of expecting bliss on earth.” – Elmira Royster-Shelton
This photograph of Elmira’s engagement (1849) ring was taken without permission from the Poe Museum website where it didn’t look anywhere near as nice.
The only one of Poe’s Weird Women (as World of Poe calls them) who didn’t claim any of Poe’s poems were about her – I’m thinking of Annabel Lee and The Raven in particular, among others – is, somewhat ironically, actually the only likely viable candidate for that honor.
Poe, who died with lots of enemies, no money, and a reputation in a gutter much filthier than they found him in, eventually got some love. You might think over 25 years is a long time to wait (especially if you don’t consider that Poe funerals are now practically on their way to being a franchise of their own) but, surprisingly, the popular and respectable Elmira Shelton wasn’t so lucky. Apparently, nice girls finish last.
Somehow, this wealthy woman who endured countless friends and family accusing her “dearest object on earth” of ulterior motives (marrying her for the money which he had none of and she had lots of) didn’t have so much as a numbered piece of sandstone to mark her remains in Richmond’s Shockhoe Hill Cemetery.
Until just a few months ago – October 7, 2012 – the woman who twice had Edgar slip through her fingers had no grave marker! Of course, if Walsh is correct and Elmira’s family (unlike Poe, if we honor his constitutional right to a benefit of the doubt) cared more about Elmira’s money than Elmira this is unsurprising to say the least. Speaking of Walsh…
Why do I care?
Elmira – via Walsh’s Midnight Dreary – is the reason I got into Poe. If you like this awesome blog, put some flowers on her grave (now that you can find it!). As I began to share in a previous post, Walsh’s delightfully dubious detective work seduced me into and inspired my love of Poe. I want to believe his theory and I make no apologies for it since no one can prove it isn’t true.
Yes, I love Virginia. If I ever meet any of these biographers who say she was anything less than a Christina Ricci lookalike who was second only to Edgar in charisma and intelligence, why I fully intend to give ‘em what for. But Walsh had me at his first DanBrownesque paragraph of “What’s gonna happen next?” and that’s why I named one of my Second Life avatars Elmira Royster-Poe because if her rotten brothers hadn’t have beaten him senseless, they’d still be happily married to this day.
So What?
The romance and mystery made me care about Poe far more than his writing ever did and I wanted to write a biography-thing dividing his life into chapters named “Eliza Hopkins-Poe,” “Frances Allan,” “Jane Stoddard,” “Elmira Royster,” and so on partly because all the women I’ve loved before are the benchmarks on my biographical timeline as well.
The biography became a screenplay because I keep just practically pooping the best dialogue ever written but, back in the days before digital filmmaking, iMovie and YouTube the likelihood of me selling – let alone producing – such a thing was pretty much the dumbest notion ever … because I didn’t yet know who Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez were. I repeatedly considered a script for a graphic novel but there was no one I knew and trusted to do the illustration. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve considered drawing it myself a la xkcd.com but I can’t draw perspective well enough to even do that.
For a few years, I thought I’d lost all my notes and work. Then, one day, I found a box with all my masterpiece’s pieces thus far. I read it with a few more years of experience and retrospect and was tickled to death that it was all as brilliant as I remembered. After I resumed work on it, my wife cleaned my office, thought it was all just clutter and a mess (which, to be fair, it really did resemble) and threw it all out.
Much to my credit I killed neither her nor myself. I did sulk for a few more years though. Then I started buying eBooks … and wanted to stab myself in the eyes so the pain would go away or, at least, stab the designers, developers, and publishers who release the e-Xcrement they pass off as eBooks.
So I learned the craft and am making my own. It will be, easily, the most beautiful and user friendly Poe anthology available at Amazon.com and that isn’t pride or me fooling myself – the bar is set really, really low. It will also be the most comprehensive.
While researching for it, I’ve started creating other fun stuff … I’m a total graphics nerd and love making cool info-graphics. What with the interwebs and wide availability of primary source documents, it’ll be easy to become world renowned as the guy who finally gave Poe his due. I’d like to thank, in advance, all the lazy and stupid biographers who came before me.
Back To Elmira
Some folks down in Virginia raised some money and finally got poor Elmira some shizzle for her grizzle. The pictures below were shamelessly stolen from her memorial at FindAGrave.com and some other site then lovingly retouched and improved with more skill and talent that you could possibly imagine.
Some scholars and amateur experts disagree, but even the Poe Museum’s marker refers to Elmira as “first and last fiancée” and Poe’s Annabel Lee.
I’m not sure what the monument/sculpture is supposed to be unless Eddy’s ghost makes an Elmira Toaster pilgrimage to Richmond during which they finally get to make sweet, sweet teenage love on it.
I’m not saying the Edgar-Virginia story isn’t romantic but the Edgar-Elmira story is mythic and tragic and the stuff for which nights with Ben, Jerry, and your Blu-Ray player were meant. Seriously, if somebody wrote their story, people would make fun of it for being fluffy and unrealistic.
Which is why, by the way, I’m so pissed off about that recent little Raven film. All the real life drama, sex and romance in the Tell-Tale Heartthrob’s life and they had to create a love interest out of thin air?
One area where Virginia definitely gets a major cool points victory is in the Locks of Edgar’s Hair arena. The locket Virginia wore contained both her hair and Edgar’s which is pretty cool. Elmira’s brooch (below image swiped from the Richmond Poe Museum’s site and color corrected with ease and genius) has only Edgar’s.
I like to think of this telescope, currently boarded up in the Baltimore Poe House like the Flowers in the Attic children.
According to some account(s), the Royster family home was right behind one of the Allan family homes so after secret rendezvous for smooching and backgammon, Poe might watch Elmira brush her teeth and stuff.
I purloined this picture from October’s Ashen Skies by David J. Ross who credits the picture of the telescope “in the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, courtesy of David Healy and photographer Bill Dean.” I should also credit the PhotoShop whiz, Jay Sprout, who greatly improved it with some fancy color & light correction.
Were they secretly married?
Everyone has a crack-pot, crack-pipe, cracked-up Poe theory. Here’s one of mine: I think their “understanding” and “arrangement” was that they were secretly married. If Poe could, as some people propose (no pun intended), marry Virginia in secret and get away with enlisting under a false name, convince everyone including John Allan to get him into West Point, get the President to have his back (however much in vain), and crack codes like Will Hunting was his personal bitch … I’m sure he could pull off a secret marriage to Elmira who had a lot to lose. She does protest too much an awful lot, doesn’t she? And what’s with Poe using pseudonyms more frequently than usual not to mention all the intermediaries sworn to secrecy? Because he secretly married Elmira, that’s why! Duh!
He Drew Her Like One of His French Girls
There are two alleged drawings by Poe of Elmira. There’s the picture that’s actually from her personal effects drawn approximately 1826 is on display at the Poe Museum (I stole this image from their site) in Richmond, Virginia.
Then there’s this one, which actually looks like her. If you look closely, you can even tell she’s wearing the same skull earring in both pictures.
“I love him so much, I could just puke!”
– Elmira Royster
Countless romantics have described loving someone so much that it hurt. Although the few words we have from her aren’t as dramatic as those of his other admirers, describing Poe as “all that you could desire him to be” is nothing to sneeze at. In Elmira’s September 22, 1849 letter to Ms. Clemm (who was, for all intents and purposes, her soon-to-be Mother-in-Law), she recalled bumping into Eddy & Sissy when they were newlyweds resulting feelings that were “indescribable, almost agonizing.” I am sure that was nothing compared to “the horrible truth” of his death she writes her October 11, 1849 letter to Ms. Clemm:
“It was the most severe trial I have ever had. And God alone knows how I can bear it. My heart is overwhelmed. Yes, ready to burst! … Oh, my dear Edgar, shall I never behold your dear face and hear your sweet voice saying … ‘Dearest Elmira?’ How can I bear the separation?”
For the Love of Poe 