Just who was the haunting and complicated nineteenth-century literary master, Edgar Allan Poe? And how does his work -- some well-known and often read and others relatively obscure - help his casual and most serious readers to know more about the man behind the art? Steve Bannow's uniquely formatted biography of Poe helps his readers to grasp the real-life dynamics that shaped the writer and his craft. This rendering is presented in a style that views Poe, his loves, his failures, his losses, his friends, his enemies, his weaknesses, his strengths, and his prolific contributions to American and international literature through an omniscient lens. Relying on the most reliable sources (accounts by close family members and personal acquaintances, knowledgeable literary observers of the day, honored biographers, trusted historical manuscripts carefully reviewed for accuracy by the foremost Edgar Allan Poe scholars), Bannow dedicates himself to providing a detailed, accurate, and factually trustworthy look at one of the most important writers and editors in American literary history. A Fleeting and Disconsolate Passage is a form of literary biography that offers its readers the rare combination of generally historical accuracy wrapped in an emotionally charged narrative. Steve Bannow's objective - and wish, as someone who has studied and appreciated the work of EAP for decades -- is that his readers will gain important insights into the man and his art that will generate a new appreciation for his oeuvre.