In words of the author: This study of Edgar Allan Poe, poet, and man, is simply an attempt to make something like a finished picture of the shadowy sketch the biographers, hampered by the limitations of proved fact, must, at best, give us. To this end, I have used the story-teller's license to present the facts in picturesque form. Yet I believe I have told a true story - true to the spirit if not to the letter - for I think I have made Poe and the other persons of the drama do nothing they may not have done, say nothing they may not have said, feel anything they may not have felt. In many instances, the opinions, and even the words I have placed in Poe's mouth are his own - found in his published works or his letters.