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Sections: Biography Criticism Letters Bibliography
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Mrs. Sarah Anna Lewis
(Born: April 1824 - Died: November 24, 1880)
American poet and playwright Sarah Anna Robinson was born near Baltimore, MD. She married Sylvanus D. Lewis in 1841 (although divorce records state that she was married in September 1838). In later years, Mrs. Lewis helped to take care of Mrs. Clemm when Poe was away, and his reliance on her for such matters, as well as financial considerations, probably forced him to put aside his critical eye and actively promote her writings. (For the apparent promise of $100, see Mrs. M. G. Nichols’ recollections from 1863.) She was somewhat free with her first name, sometimes calling herself Estelle and later merely Stella. She divorced her husband in 1858, travelled to Europe and moved to London, England, living for her last decade in Bedford Square. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brookly, NY, where she was interred on June 3, 1881 (lot: 23452 section: 155), her body having been shipped back to her home country.
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- Notice of Estella Anna Lewis
- “The Literati of New-York — S. Anna Lewis” (1848, text “A” — manuscript fragment)
- “The Literati of New-York — S. Anna Lewis” (August 1848, text “B” — United States Magazine and Democratic Review)
- “Mrs. Lewis’ Poems [Review of The Child of the Sea and other Poems]” (September 1848, text “A” — Southern Literary Messenger)
- Notice of Sarah [[Estella]] Anna Lewis
- “[Sarah Anna Lewis]” (about November 1848, text “A” — “Young” manuscript fragments) (These fragments also include printed selections and several pages in the hand of Mrs. Lewis.)
- “Sarah Anna Lewis” (?) (1849, text “B” — The Female Poets of America) (The identical review was reprinted in the second edition, for which there are several printings, 1849-1854. The attribution is somewhat problematic and has been disputed. It appears that it may best be termed a “collaboration” since it seems to have been mostly written, or reworked, by Griswold.)
- “Estelle Anna Lewis”
- “Estelle Anna Lewis” (text “A” — “Griswold” and other manuscript fragments)
- “Estelle Anna Lewis” (1850, text “B” — Works)
- [Memorandum on Mrs. E. A. Lewis] (February 14, 1849, text “A” — “Thomas” manuscript)
- Notice of Mrs. Lewis’ The Child of the Sea and other Poems (April 1849, text “A” — Graham’s Magazine)
- “Mrs. Lewis’ Poems” (April 1849, text “A” — Western Quarterly Review)
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- E. A. Poe to S. A. Lewis - November 27, 1847 (OL#257)
- E. A. Poe to S. A. Lewis - June 21, 1848 (OL#272)
- E. A. Poe to S. A. Lewis - late 1848 (?) (OL#297)
- E. A. Poe to S. A. Lewis - May 17, 1849 (OL#314) (possibly a forgery)
- E. A. Poe to S. A. Lewis - July 7, 1849 (OL#324)
- E. A. Poe to S. A. Lewis - September 18, 1849 (OL#333)
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- Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L., “Estelle Anna Lewis,” Cyclopedia of American Literature, New York: Charles Scribner, 1856, 2:680-681
- Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
- Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978. (Second printing 1979)
- Phillips, Elizabeth, “Estelle Anna Robinson Lewis,” American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present, ed. Lina Mainiero, New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1970, 2:571-573
- Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849, Boston: G. K. Hall & Sons, 1987.
- Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds., Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1889, 3:703
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - People - Mrs. Sarah Anna Lewis