Baltimore’s greatest romances

Photo by Frank A. Miller

Despite their addictions, both Scott and Zelda were artistically productive in Baltimore. She wrote a novel, plays and became an accomplished painter. Scott struggled to finish "Tender Is the Night," a critical success but a financial flop. Zelda became increasingly withdrawn, at times even catatonic. She moved to Sheppard Pratt Hospital, and eventually Scott moved her to another institution in Asheville, N.C. Though his hopes and dreams were dashed in Baltimore, Fitzgerald never blamed the city.

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H.L. Mencken and Sara Haardt courted for seven years -- a slow and uneven romance, according to Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, the Mencken biographer and editor of "Mencken & Sara: A Life in Letters." That was partly due to the 40-something Mencken living with his mother at the family home on Hollins Street.

Sun File photo of Clemm; AP file photo of Poe

Edgar Allan Poe arrived in Baltimore in his early 20s to stay with his aunt in a tiny home on Amity Street. There he met his 6-year-old cousin, Virginia. Seven years later, he'd marry her.

AP file photo

Baltimore's closest thing to a Cinderella story is that of Bessie Wallis Warfield, the daughter of a boarding-house owner, destined to marry a king. But this fairy tale comes with divorces and scandal.

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Betsy Patterson was the Belle of Baltimore, yet all she wanted to do was leave the city in her dust. And at 18, Patterson saw her chance in Jerome Bonaparte, the 19-year-old brother of Napoleon, emperor of France. Booted from the French Navy, Jerome had come to Baltimore, lured by a sailor's promise that it was where to find America's most beautiful women.