What is the name of the woman who was Edgar Allan Poe's first love and later his fiancée?

Sarah Elmira Royster was Edgar Allan Poe’s first love and, near the end of his life, his reported fiancée. The two met as teenagers in Richmond, Virginia, around 1825, when Royster was 15 and Poe was 16. They discussed marriage and were reportedly secretly engaged before Poe left to study at the University of Virginia.

Royster’s father opposed the relationship and intercepted Poe’s letters, leading her to believe that Poe had forgotten her. She married Alexander B. Shelton in 1828. After Shelton’s death in 1844, Royster and Poe renewed their relationship in 1848, more than a year after Poe’s wife, Virginia Clemm, died.

Their late relationship is slightly complicated by conflicting evidence. Royster later denied that they had been formally engaged, while other accounts and a letter to Poe’s mother-in-law suggest that marriage was seriously discussed. Most biographers describe them as engaged or having reached an understanding shortly before Poe’s death in October 1849. Royster’s married name was Sarah Elmira Shelton, but Sarah Elmira Royster is the name associated with her relationship to Poe.