Sarah Helen Whitman (1803-1878).

[jones jones]

Poet, Spiritualist, Trancendentalist, and, briefly, fiancée of Edgar Allan Poe.

“She was delicately beautiful, veiled, mysterious, and elusive. She dressed in light silken draperies, and, as she passed, shielding her eyes from the too garish light of day by a fan, one glimpsed a spiritual dream of womanhood gliding by upon dainty slippers, following by undulating scarfs—and a faint, deathly-sweet odor of a handkerchief soaked in ether.”

(from Israfel; The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe, by Hervey Allen, 1934)

(She had a heart condition, which she treated by inhaling ether from her anesthetic-soaked hankie. She also apparently liked dressing in black and wore a coffin-shaped charm around her neck.(See First Reply)

[jones jones]