With the holidays rapidly approaching, I want to offer signed copies of my book, Edgar Allan Poe: The Master of the Macabre (2025, Adams Media—an imprint of Simon & Schuster). This book is the first installment in a series titled Pocket Portraits, which offer beginner-friendly biographies of some of your favorite authors. But don’t worry, this book does NOT skimp on the fascinating details of Poe’s sad life and mysterious death.

This book was designed to be gifted: a beautiful, slightly larger than pocket-sized book with an ornate jacket smothered in original art representing Poe and his works. To order your signed copy with an optional inscription, email me (the author) levi@edgarallanpoeri.com

The book retails for $17.00, and I’m offering it shipped for $20.00. Payment can be discussed via email.

Poe Poe Poe! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a fruitful New Year!

In celebration of my new book, Edgar Allan Poe: The Master of the Macabre, we’re hosting a book signing in the very garden that ignited Poe’s romance with the local poet, Sarah Helen Whitman. This is a free event. Light refreshments will be provided and books will be available for sale. All are welcome! Rain date will be announced right here on this website.

I also welcome folks to check out A Walking Tour of Poe’s Providence. This is the tour’s fifth season and we’re so excited to bring this tour to the public once again. Dates are available now through early November. You can get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-walking-tour-of-poes-providence-tickets-1628139612409?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawMZY1hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjOR8Ad9wzMhaaRY2c0yC8HeS8pr42b7zGkcEJKMdLDK9WDQHlOr9uYQM3T9_aem_wCqCXr_0_9r0cAaCIU6MVA

With the Fifth Annual Remembrance ceremony just days away, we invite you to read about a significant piece of Whitman’s legacy in Providence—and it involves Poe. We are grateful to The Providence Eye for publishing this article, which also serves as an invitation to the ceremony this Saturday, June 28, 2025, 1:00 P.M., at the Providence Athenaeum.

Join us for our fifth (that’s right, FIFTH) annual remembrance ceremony for one of Providence’s most beloved citizens, Sarah Helen Whitman! Previously a graveside wreath laying ceremony, we are stepping out of the summer heat and into the beautiful and historic Providence Athenaeum again this year. This event will observe the 147th anniversary of Whitman’s death, which occurred on June 27, 1878.

Meet Whitman herself as local historian, tour guide, and actress, Catherine Hurst, reprises her role as Mrs. Whitman to recite select poems and anecdotes about her life. You’ll learn about her infamous courtship with the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, that took place right in the Athenaeum! Hear one of Providence’s most turbulent love stories in the very location it took place!

This event is created and hosted by Levi Lionel Leland, creator of edgarallanpoeri.com and A Walking Tour of Poe’s Providence, author of Simon & Schuster’s “Edgar Allan Poe: Master of the Macabre,” and Levi also happens to be Whitman’s distant cousin. This annual remembrance is one of the biggest celebrations of Sarah Helen Whitman in recent history! You won’t want to miss it.

Every attendee is encouraged to sign the guestbook with a written tribute to Sarah Helen Whitman. There will also be a free gift to take home with you in remembrance of the occasion.

Please RSVP through the Facebook event page so we have a rough count of guests. You won’t be turned away in any case, but it helps us to know how many to expect. Thanks in advance!

If you have any questions prior to the event, please feel free to email me: levi@edgarallanpoeri.com

We hope to see you there!

I’m pleased to share that my book, Edgar Allan Poe: The Master of the Macabre is available for preorder. Just click this link to secure your copy!

This book is part of a series called “Pocket Portraits” by Simon & Schuster. There will be a variety of these books authored by “experts” on their respective literary figures. It was an honor to have been selected to write the one about Poe.

The book is set to be released on September 23rd of this year (2025). Below you’ll see the debut set all together, featuring titles on Jane Austen and J. R. R. Tolkien. These books will make attractive additions to your library!

Today marks 216 years since the birth of Edgar Allan Poe and 222 years since the birth of Sarah Helen Whitman.

I like to say that, perhaps, Poe’s greatest work is his fans, proven by the outpouring of love for him on this day throughout the world. And Sarah Helen Whitman, his brief love and ardent champion—was also a fan of his writings and later helped document details of his life for posterity. In a way, she was one of his first fans, which makes her history with him that much more special.

Happy Birthday you two, wherever you may be…

Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight—

Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)

That bade me pause before that garden-gate,

To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?

-From Poe’s second titled, “To Helen”

The latest development in my research is the confirmation that Sarah Helen Whitman and I (the creator of this site and A Walking Tour of Poe’s Providence) are related. Sixth cousins six times removed, to be precise. Her 5th great-grandfather is my 11th great-grandfather, John Gould VII (1584-1650) from Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, England.

John Gould VII had three children: John Gould VIII, Thomas Salem Gould, and Nathan Gould. John Gould VIII is Whitman’s 4th great-grandfather, and his brother, Thomas Gould, is my 10th great-grandfather.

A few years ago while I was at the John Hay Library digging through Whitman’s papers, I came across her family tree. I saw that her great-grandmother on her mother’s side was named Mary Gould. I thought that it was a funny coincidence that I had the Gould name on my mother’s side as well. I was hopeful for a connection, but never set the time aside to do the genealogy research. Well, I was finally able to work on the family trees, tracing the Goulds on both sides until they intersected in England.

The 2024 tour schedule has been posted to Eventbrite! Join us for a stroll through the historic city of Providence as we trace Poe’s footsteps and rekindle his romance with our own eccentric poetess, Sarah Helen Whitman. Click here to purchase your tickets.

For a quick view of the dates and times, they are as follows:

Saturday	9/7	1pm-3pm
Saturday	9/28	1pm-3pm
Saturday	10/12	1pm-3pm
Monday	10/14	1pm-3pm
Saturday	10/26	11am-1pm
Sunday	10/27	10am-12pm
Saturday	11/2	1pm-3pm
Saturday	11/9	1pm-3pm

During her trip to Europe, it is possible that Whitman visited the Louvre Museum in Paris, France and saw Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa with her own eyes. In January 1868, Whitman transcribed this section of an article titled “Old Masters in the Louvre” by Eugene Benson from The Atlantic monthly, a Boston publication. Whitman must have strongly agreed with Benson’s sentiments regarding the illusive expression of Mona Lisa:

“I hold the most remarkable example of expression in art to be Leonardo da Vinci’s strange haunting face of Mona Lisa, the Florentine wife; in some respects the most remarkable picture in the world. It is of an order of excellence not perceived by most men. It is both subtle and intense. A famous critic called it ‘the mighty portrait of Leonardo.’ Leonardo gives to his faces such an imprint of superiority that one feels disturbed in their presence. ‘The lids of her profound eyes hold secrets unknown to the profane.'”