How DID Poe die?

Jayaprakash Satyamurthy

Jayaprakash Satyamurthy

Knivesout no more
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[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]No one seems to know. One of the more (apparently) reliable sites lists about 15 theories over a century and a half:

Beating (1857)
The United States Magazine Vol.II (1857): 268.

Epilepsy (1875)
Scribner's Monthly Vo1. 10 (1875): 691.

Dipsomania (1921)
Robertson, John W. Edgar A. Poe A Study. Brough, 1921: 134, 379.

Heart (1926)
Allan, Hervey. Israfel. Doubleday, 1926: Chapt. XXVII, 670.

Toxic Disorder (1970)
Studia Philo1ogica Vol. 16 (1970): 41-42.

Hypoglycemia (1979)
Artes Literatus (1979) Vol. 5: 7-19.

Diabetes (1977)
Sinclair, David. Edgar Allan Poe. Roman & Litt1efield, 1977: 151-152.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase (1984)
Arno Karlen. Napo1eon's Glands. Little Brown, 1984: 92.

Porphryia (1989)
JMAMA Feb. 10, 1989: 863-864.

Delerium Tremens (1992)
Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar A1lan Poe. Charles Scribner, 1992: 255.

Rabies (1996)
Maryland Medical Journal Sept. 1996: 765-769.

Heart (1997)
Scientific Sleuthing Review Summer 1997: 1-4.

Murder (1998)
Walsh, John E., Midnight Dreary. Rutgers Univ. Press, 1998: 119-120.

Epilepsy (1999)
Archives of Neurology June 1999: 646, 740.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning (1999)
Albert Donnay


So that's everything from alcohol to the disease commonly known as vampirism to some sort of brutal attack to the bite of a rabid dog...

It's oddly appropriate, I guess, that we may never really know how he died. Until then, dozens of writers from various genres have a fertile field of speculation to base some really creepy 'death of Poe' stories in (I've read a few of these), and, as the above list shows, so does the medical profession.

As for the 'real' truth, like the man said...

All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

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Well as I'm going to be doing a bio on Poe JP, maybe I'll get lucky and dig up something new.

Most likely we'll never know but here's an interesting article on it for those wishing to read more:

http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm

The only contemporary public reference to a specific cause of death was from the Baltimore Clipper, an unclear "congestion of the brain". Death certificates were apparently not required at the time and none is known to have been filed for Poe and extensive searches in more recent times have revealed nothing.

Fascinating stuff though!!
 
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Im thinking that there will never be a certain answer. The problem is that even if one was found, someone (quite a few someones im guessing :) ) would find another, or dispute it. Society needs mysteries, its the way we function.
Poe was checked into the Washington College Hospital on October 3 1849. The thing is, his attending physician, a Dr John J Moran, basically made a career from lecturing on Poes death and his condition. it seems that every time the good doctor re-told the story it changed and became more fantastic and tragic. Heres info from the site i had a look at

Poe was taken to a room in one of the towers, where persons ill from drinking were usually put to avoid disturbing the other patients. Moran quickly decided, however, that Poe was not drunk and indeed had not been drinking. Since Poe's clothing had been taken and replaced with something much more worn and garish, Moran suspected that Poe may have been robbed and mugged. Poe came in and out of consciousness, at one point refusing a glass of brandy offered as a stimulant. Moran then has Poe giving a number of absurdly flowery speeches, including "Language cannot tell the gushing well that swells, sways and sweeps, tempest-like, over me, signaling the 'larm of death'." Asked about his friends, Poe supposedly replied that "My best friend would be the man who gave me a pistol that I might blow out my brains." By one of Moran's descriptions, Poe called out the name of "Reynolds" (who has never satisfactorily been identified). At around 5:00 in the morning of Sunday, October 7, Poe died. His last words may have been "Lord, help my poor soul."

"Moran's description of the cause of Poe's death is sufficiently vague that he probably did not know precisely what happened to his patient. He was apparently unaware of the fact that Poe had been diagnosed sometime earlier with a weak heart and that another physician said that he had "lesions on the brain." The only official cause of death noted at the time comes from the Baltimore Clipper as "congestion of the brain."

Heres a shot of Poe laid out. At the bottom of the passage it talks about the dark figure who visits his grave. Ooooooooh, spooky! :D
http://www.celebritymorgue.com/edgar-allan-poe/
 
I had a quick look in the Wikipedia and they had something similar but with a few extras, like a query on the last words that he actually said.
 
I think it's just brilliant that Poe's death remains such a mystery! Has anyone read any of the 'death of Poe' stories I alluded to earlier? I especially remember one where Poe has a very spooky encounter with vampires in which he plays a heroic ruole, but dooms himself in the process. It's less corny than it sounds!
 
Nope, not read any 'death of Poe' stories but its always struck me as being supremeley ironic that for a guy whose themes included death, mystery and the supernatural that he himself would be surrounded by such forces after his death.

There's also another controversy/discussion reagrding the exact location of Poe's body and that he is not currrently buried under his monument but that someone else is buried there and that he is located in another part of the cemetry.

Check this out...:D

http://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/poeperplex/gravep.htm
 
Following on from my previuos post, for anyone interested in Poe's death check out John Evangelist's Walsh's thoroughly researched book Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death Of Edgar Allan Poe. Well worth a read....:)
 
Whoa, I never realized this but a quick look on Wikipedia... well... WHOA!
 
Having lived for many years in Baltimore, and often visited the Poe grave(in the daytime, a friend of mine tried to go over the fence at night and impaled himself) I can tell you the real mystery is"Who's buried in Poe's tomb?"
The current grave is a reburial, and frankly, there's no certainty that the remains are those of the author.
The Midnight Visitor has become so well known that they needed crowd control for the last time-fame ruins everything!!!!!
 
Poe was a drunk-he got caught up in a Baltimore election-they were rough affairs in Mobtown-he got very drunk on cheap hooch, given to him by the electioneers, who probably changed his clothes to vote him again, got wet, got cold, got beaten up in a fight between political gangs(perhaps, it was common enough) went into the DT's, caught pneumonia, and died-no mystery there, folks.
 
There's one fact we can be fairly certain of, Poe is dead.
Who would want to kill him? He was a harmless writer of wierd stories, not an important political figure.
Death by alcoholic misadventure-about the only kind of adventure you have when you're very drunk-in a rough town, at a rough time.
Jeezy, what if Stephen King had died in his accident? Would that qualify for great mystery status?
Or what if Agatha Christie had never been found?
Authors run the same risks as the rest of us, and everybody has to die once.
(Did read a story long ago that insinuated that Poe didn't die in Baltimore, but slipped away to Paris, where he took to solving crimes, good pastiche!
 
He's probably irked that he can't drink the brandy.
Last time I passed his grave(it's across from the VA hospital), a wino was putting a couple of empty beer bottles and a bunch of wilted flowers on the monument.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
 
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