Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis, in New York, she published her first book, Poems, Translated and Original, in 1835. She married the chemist William Henry Ellet and the couple moved to South Carolina, where she published several books and contributed to
multiple journals. In 1845 she moved back to New York and took her place in the literary scene there.
Sadly, she became best known for a public scandal involving Edgar Allan Poe and Frances Sargent Osgood (read below).
Apparently, on one visit to Poe's home in January 1846, Ellet observed letters from Osgood, shown to her by Poe's wife Virginia, and later advised Osgood to ask for their return. Not wanting to do it herself, Osgood had Margaret Fuller and Anne Lynch Botta do so on her behalf. This angered Poe and he suggested that Ellet had better "look after her own letters". One such letter, written in German, asked Poe to "Call for it at her residence this evening", a phrase presumably meant to be seductive, though Poe ignored it.
Elizabeth then asked her brother, Colonel William Lummis, to ask Poe to return the letters, and though he declared that he already had, the colonel threated to kill him. In order to defend himself, Poe requested a pistol from fellow poet Thomas Dunn English.
Elizabeth Ellet would later retract her statements, after Osgood's husband, Samuel Stillman Osgood, threatened to sue. She wrote to Osgood saying, "The letter shown me by Mrs Poe must have been a forgery created by Poe himself". She put all the blame on him, suggesting the incident was because Poe was "intemperate and subject to acts of lunacy." The rumor that Poe was insane was spread by Ellet and other enemies of Poe and eventually reported in newspapers. After Osgood reunited with her husband, the scandal died down, though Poe's sick wife Virginia, was still was deeply affected by the publicity. She had been receiving anonymous letters, (possibly from Ellet), which reported her husband's alleged indiscretions as early as July 1845. On her deathbed Virginia claimed that "Mrs. E. had been her murderer." As Poe described years later: "I scorned Mrs. E simply because she revolted me, and to this day she has never ceased her anonymous persecutions."
