In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe published "The Raven," was embraced by the New York literati, founded his own magazine, and allegedly began an affair with Frances "Fanny" Sargent Osgood. By the end of the year, Poe would leave New York City a ruined man, deeply in debt, and a virtual outcast spurned by a circle that included Horace Greeley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In Poe & Fanny, John May envisions the love affair using their own flirtatious poetry as inspiration.

A richly imagined debut novel, Poe & Fanny brings New York's giddy pre-Civil War social scene into brilliant focus as it explores the tragic life and loves of one of America's great literary figures.