Posted on 01/20/2006 11:09:12 AM PST by JZelle
BALTIMORE (AP) -- For the 57th year, a mystery man has paid tribute to Edgar Allan Poe by placing roses and a bottle of cognac on the writer's grave to mark his birthday. But some of the 25 spectators, drawn to the tiny, locked graveyard in downtown Baltimore to view the ceremony, climbed over the walls of the site and were "running all over the place trying to find out how the guy gets in," according to the most faithful viewer of the event. Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, who has seen the mysterious visitor every Jan. 19 since 1976, said early yesterday that he had to chase people out of the graveyard, fearing they would interfere with the mystery visitor's ceremony. "They had a game plan," Mr. Jerome said. "They knew from previous years when the guy would appear." Although the visitor managed to get in and go out without anyone stopping him, Mr. Jerome said because of the disruption early yesterday and of previous years, he will not reveal details of what the Poe Toaster was wearing, what he did at Poe's grave and whether he left anything besides the roses and cognac, such as a note. "In letting people know about this tribute, I've been contributing to these people's desire to catch this guy," Mr. Jerome said. "It's such a touching tribute, and it's been disrupted by the actions of a few people trying to interfere and expose this guy."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Maybe it's not doing Poe a favor, bringing all this cognac. Maybe he should be encouraged to go on the wagon.
This has been going on for years.I went to Notre Dame College in Baltimore, an all girl's college.
I went with a bunch of friends, about five, and tried to see if we could catch a glimpse of the person.
We didn't see anyone. We stayed until 3am and then went back to school and drank some beer in his memory ala The dead Poets Society.
Very plausible explanation. ["inside job"]
On October 3, 1849 Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious and "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance," according to the man who found him. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died early on the morning of October 7. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and wearing clothes that were not his own. Some sources say Poe's final words were "It's all over now; write 'Eddy is no more'." referring to his tombstone. Others say his last words were "Lord, help my poor soul."
The precise cause of Poe's death is disputed. Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, an acquaintance of Poe who was among those who saw him in his last days, was convinced that Poe's death was a result of drunkenness, and did a great deal to popularize this interpretation of the events. He was, however, a supporter of the temperance movement who found Poe a useful example in his work; later scholars have shown that his account of Poe's death distorts facts to support his theory.
Dr. John Moran, the physician who attended Poe, stated in his own 1885 account that "Edgar Allan Poe did not die under the effect of any intoxicant, nor was the smell of liquor upon his breath or person." This was, however, only one of several sometimes contradictory accounts of Poe's last days he published over the years, so his testimony cannot be considered entirely reliable.
Numerous other theories have been proposed over the years, including several forms of rare brain disease, diabetes, various types of enzyme deficiency, syphilis, the idea that Poe was shanghaied, drugged, and used as a pawn in a ballot-box-stuffing scam during the election that was held on the day he was found, and more recently, rabies.[1]
In the absence of contemporary documentation (all surviving accounts are either incomplete or published years after the event; even Poe's death certificate, if one was ever made out, has been lost), it is likely that the cause of Poe's death will never be known. No other major American writer in the nineteenth century except Sidney Lanier and Stephen Crane lived a shorter life span.
Poe is buried on the grounds of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground[2], now part of the University of Maryland School of Law[3] in Baltimore.
Even after death, however, Poe has created controversy and mystery. Because of his fame, school children collected money for a new burial spot closer to the front gate. He was reburied on October 1, 1875. A celebration was held at the dedication of the new tomb on November 17. Likely unknown to the reburial crew, however, the headstones on all the graves, previously facing to the east, were turned to face the West Gate in 1864.[4] Therefore, as it was described in a seemingly fitting turn of events:
In digging on what they erroneously thought to be the right of the General Poe the committee naturally first struck old Mrs. Poe who had been buried thirty-six years before Edgar's mother-in-law; they tried again and presumably struck Mrs. Clemm who had been buried in 1876 only four years earlier. Henry's Poe's brother foot stone, it there, was respected for they obviously skipped over him and settled for the next body, which was on the Mosher lot. Because of the excellent condition of the teeth, he would certainly seem to have been the remains of Philip Mosher Jr, of the Maryland Militia, age 19.
Since Poe's death, his grave site has become a popular tourist attraction. Beginning in 1949, the grave has been visited every year by a mystery man, known endearingly as the Poe Toaster, in the early hours of Poe's birthday, January 19th. It has been reported that a man draped in black with a silver-tipped cane, kneels at the grave for a toast of Martel Cognac and leaves the half-full bottle and three red roses. The three red roses supposedly are in memory of Poe himself, his mother and his wife Virginia.
1996 Releases - University of Maryland Medical News
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Originally Released: September 24, 1996
Edgar Allan Poe Mystery
In an analysis almost 147 years after his death, doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center believe that writer Edgar Allan Poe may have died as a result of rabies, not from complications of alcoholism. Poe's medical case was reviewed by R. Michael Benitez, M.D., a cardiologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His review is published in the September 1996 issue of Maryland Medical Journal.
"No one can say conclusively that Poe died of rabies, since there was no autopsy after his death," says Dr. Benitez, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "But the historical accounts of Poe's condition in the hospital a few days before his death point to a strong possibility that he had rabies."
Poe was 39 years old when he died on October 7, 1849. He had traveled by train from Richmond, Virginia to Baltimore a few days earlier, on September 28. While in Richmond, he had proposed marriage to a woman who would have become his second wife. (His first wife had died). Poe intended to continue on to Philadelphia to finalize some business when he became ill.
Poe was discovered lying unconscious on September 28 on a wooden plank outside Ryan's saloon on Lombard St. in Baltimore. He was taken to Washington College Hospital (now Church Hospital).
Historical accounts of his hospitalization indicate that at first he was delirious with tremors and hallucinations, then he slipped into a coma. He emerged from the coma, was calm and lucid, but then lapsed again into a delirious state, became combative, and required restraint. He died on his fourth day in the hospital. According to an account published in the Maryland Historical Magazine in December 1978, the Baltimore Commissioner of Health, Dr. J.F.C. Handel certified that the cause of Poe's death was "congestion of the brain."
In his analysis, Dr. Benitez examined all of the possible causes for delirium, which include trauma, vascular disorders in the brain, neurological problems such as epilepsy, and infections. Alcohol withdrawal is also a potential cause of tremors and delirium, and Poe was known to have abused alcohol and opiate drugs. However, the medical records indicate that Poe had abstained from alcohol for six months before his death, and there was no evidence of alcohol use when he was admitted.
"In addition, it is unusual for patients suffering from alcohol withdrawal to become acutely ill, recover for a brief time, and then worsen and die," says Dr. Benitez, who adds that withdrawal from opiates does not produce the same scenario of symptoms as Poe's illness.
Dr. Benitez says in the final stages of rabies, it is common for people to have periods of confusion that come and go, along with wide swings in pulse rate and other body functions, such as respiration and temperature. All of that occurred for Poe, according to medical records kept by Dr. John J. Moran who cared for Poe in his final days. In addition, the median length of survival after the onset of serious symptoms is four days, which is exactly the number of days Poe was hospitalized before his death.
Poe's doctor also wrote that in the hospital, Poe refused alcohol he was offered and drank water only with great difficulty. Dr. Benitez says that seems to be a symptom of hydrophobia, a fear of water, which is a classic sign of rabies.
Dr. Benitez theorizes that Poe may have gotten rabies from being bitten by one of his pets. He was known to have cats and other pets. Although there is no account that Poe had been bitten by an animal, it is interesting that in all the cases of human rabies in the United States from 1977 to 1994, people remembered being bitten in only 27 percent of those cases. In addition, people can have the infection for up to a year without major symptoms.
The Poe case was presented originally to Dr. Benitez as part of a weekly meeting of medical center physicians, called the Clinical Pathologic Conference. It is an exercise in which a complex case is presented without a diagnosis, and physicians discuss how they would determine a patient's condition and course of treatment. Dr. Benitez did not know that the patient in question at this particular conference was Edgar Allan Poe.
The idea to analyze Poe's death came from Philip A. Mackowiak, M.D., professor of medicine and vice-chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
"Poe's death is one of the most mysterious deaths in literary history, and it provided us with an interesting case in which to discuss many principles of medicine," says Dr. Mackowiak, who runs the weekly Clinical Pathologic Conference at the medical center.
Dr. Mackowiak agrees with Dr. Benitez that rabies was the most likely cause of Poe's death, based on the available evidence. He adds, though, that after Poe's death, his doctor went on the lecture circuit and gave varying accounts of the writer's final days. "The account on which Dr. Benitez based his findings was more consistent with rabies than with anything else, but the definitive cause of Poe's death will likely remain a mystery," says Dr. Mackowiak.
Edgar Allan Poe is buried in a cemetery next to Westminister Hall at Fayette and Greene Streets, just one block from the University of Maryland Medical Center.
My guess, when this first started out, it may have been some old friend or a fan.
Since then, I think its been more then one person doing it to "pass the legend on" so to speak.
I don't even think you need to have a worker do it, if the guy in charge already knows in advance, he can find alot of ways to sneak the person in, or get him there earlier or what not.
Last Update: Nov. 13, 1999 .Navigation:. Main Menu .. Poe Info. Menu
Poe's Death
No aspect of his life has so fascinated Poe's fans and detractors as his death. Unfortunately, there is also no greater example of how badly Poe's biography has been handled. Shrouded in opinion and contradiction, the essential details of Poe's final days leave us with more questions than answers. In the end we must accept that the few tantalizing facts we have lead to no certain conclusion. Poe's death must, probably, remain a mystery -- but the puzzle still teases and entices us. It is easy to find ourselves reviewing the stories again in hopes of finding something new, to settle the question once and for all.
Background
In 1849, Poe was still living with Mrs. Clemm in New York, in the same little cottage where Virginia had died in 1847. On June 29, 1849, Poe began a lecture tour to raise money and interest in his projected magazine The Stylus. He went first to Philadelphia, then to Richmond and Norfolk. While in Richmond, he reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Elmira Royster Shelton. Both Poe and Mrs. Shelton by then were widowed and after a brief courtship, renewed their long-ago engagement. Poe left for New York, to gather Maria Clemm and move their belongings back to Richmond. Before leaving, Poe stopped by the office of Dr. John F. Carter, at Seventh and Broad Streets, at about 9:30 at night. After talking for awhile, he went across the street to Saddler's Restaurant for supper, mistakenly taking Dr. Carter's malacca cane and leaving behind his own and a copy of Moore's Irish Rhapsodies. According to Dr. Carter, the cane contained a hidden sword, of which Poe may or may not have been aware (John Carter, "Edgar Poe's Last Night in Richmond," Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, p. 565 and repeated in Weiss, The Home Life of Poe, p. 203-204). Mrs. Susan A. T. Weiss noted, "at the restaurant he met with some acquaintances who detained him until late, and then accompanied him to the Baltimore boat. According to their account he was quite sober and cheerful to the last, remarking, as he took leave of them, that he would soon be in Richmond again" (Weiss, "The Last Days of Edgar A. Poe," p. 714).
Taking a boat from Richmond on September 27, Poe arrived in Baltimore on September 28, 1849. Over the next few days, details about Poe's actions and whereabouts are uncertain. Even his Baltimore cousin, Neilson Poe, wrote to Maria Clemm on October 11, 1849 "where he spent the time he was here, or under what circumstances, I have been unable to ascertain" (Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, p. 642). Poe apparently called on Dr. Nathan Covington Brooks, who was, unfortunately, out of town. (The origin of the widely repeated information for this visit to Brooks' home is elusive. G. E. Woodberry's 1885 Life of Poe (Edgar Allan Poe, 1885, p. 342) seems to be the first mention, giving a slightly extended version, with Poe being partly intoxicated. (Woodberry repeats the information in his 1909 biography of Poe with what erroneously appears to be a note that J. A. Harrison's 1902 Life of Poe as the source. No such reference occurs there and it is a note only for the sentence marked.)
Bishop Fitzgerald noted that Poe left Richmond with as much as $1,500 gathered as subscription money for his magazine (Harrison, Complete Works, Vol. I, p. 322). In a letter to E.H. N. Patterson, written on November 9, 1849, John R. Thompson claimed, "The day before he went North from Richmond, I advanced him a small sum of money for a prospective article which he probably never wrote" (Harrison, Complete Works, XVII, p. 405). If either story is true, especially Fitzgerald's, the fact that no money was ever found strongly supports the idea that Poe may have been mugged.
Thomas H. Lane's recollection adds further confusion to the story. In four slightly different accounts, he recalled that Poe had gone to Philadelphia to see friends, where he was found ill. Lane thought that Poe intended to go on to New York, but mistakenly took the train back to Baltimore (Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, p. 637). T. O. Mabbott felt that Lane was correct in the details of the event, but mistaken as to the year, relating instead what had occurred in 1848 (Mabbott, Poems, 1969, p. 568 n. 6). Moran also states that Poe went to Philadelphia, but that bad weather prevented completion of the trip (Moran, Defense of Poe, p 58). Poe may have gone to Philadelphia to comply with the request of Mrs. Leon Loud, to edit her collection of poems, for which Poe was to be paid $100. This clearly was his intent when he wrote to Maria Clemm on September 18, "On Tuesday I start for Phila[delphia] to attend to Mrs Loud's Poems -- & possibly on Thursday I may start for N. York. If I do I will go straight over to Mrs Lewis's & send for you. It will be better for me not to go to Fordham -- don't you think so? Write immediately in reply & direct to Phila. For fear I should not get the letter, sign no name & address it to E. S. T. Grey Esqr. . . . Don't forget to write immediately to Phila so that your letter will be there when I arrive" (Ostrom, Letters, p. 461). Why Poe felt that he would not get a letter correctly addressed and why it would be better for him not to go to Fordham is unclear.
The next certain information about Poe is October 3, 1849, when he was found on the street in Baltimore by Joseph Walker. Walker sent this note to Dr. J. E. Snodgrass: "Dear Sir, -- There is a gentleman, rather the worse for wear, at Ryan's 4th ward polls, who goes under the cognomen of Edgar A. Poe, and who appears in great distress, & he says he is acquainted with you, and I assure you, he is in need of immediate assistance, Yours, in haste, Jos. W. Walker." Walker, apparently, helped Poe into Gunner's Hall, a public house nearby, to wait for the arrival of his friend. Dr. Snodgrass and Henry Herring (Poe's uncle) came and found Poe in what they presumed was a drunken state. They agreed that he should be sent to the Washington College Hospital, and arranged for a carriage.
At the hospital, Poe was admitted and made as comfortable as the circumstances permitted. Over the next few days, Poe seems to have lapsed in and out of consciousness. Moran tried to question him as to the cause of his condition, but Poe's "answers were incoherent and unsatisfactory" (Moran to Maria Clemm, November 15, 1849). Neilson Poe tried to visit him, but was told that Edgar was too excitable for visitors. Depending on which account one accepts, Poe died at about 3:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. on October 7, 1849. Moran gives his last words as "Lord help my poor soul" (Moran to Maria Clemm, November 15, 1849) or, even more improbably, "He who arched the heavens and upholds the universe, has His decrees legibly written upon the frontlet of every human being and upon demaons incarnate" (Moran, A Defense of Poe, p. 72). Moran also claims that on the evening prior to his death, Poe repeatedly called out the name of "Reynolds." Substantial efforts have been made to identify who Reynolds may have been, with unimpressive results. At least one scholar felt that Poe may have instead been calling the name of "Herring" (Poe's uncle was Henry Herring) (W. T. Bandy, "Dr. Moran and the Poe-Reynolds Myth," Myths and Realities: The Mysterious Mr. Poe, Baltimore: E. A. Poe Society, 1987, pp. 26-36).
Poe's clothing had been changed. In place of his own suit of black wool was one of cheap gabardine, with a palm leaf hat. Moran describes his clothing as "a stained, faded, old bombazine coat, pantaloons of a similar character, a pair of worn-out shoes run down at the heels, and an old straw hat" (Moran, Defense of Poe, p. 59.) J. E. Snodgrass offers a more detailed description: "a rusty, almost brimless, tattered and ribbonless palmleaf hat. His clothing consisted of a sack-coat of thin and sleazy black alpaca, ripped more or less at several of its seams, and faded and soiled, and pants of a steel-mixed pattern of caseinate, half-worn and badly-fitting, if they could be said to fit at all. He wore neither vest nor neck-cloth, while the bosom of his shirt was both crumpled and badly soiled. On his feet were boots of coarse material, and giving no sign of having been blackened for a long time, if at all" (Snodgrass, "The Facts of Poe's Death and Burial," p. 284). Moran also quotes Capt. George W. Rollins, supposedly the conductor of the train, as noting two men who appeared to be following Poe (Moran, Defense of Poe, pp. 60-61.) Most modern biographies take care to note that in spite of the change of clothing, Poe still had Dr. Carter's cane. According to Susan A. Weiss, this cane was sent by Moran to Mrs. Clemm, who returned it to Dr. Carter (Weiss, Home Life of Poe, p. 205), but this seems to be a misinterpretation of Dr. Carter's own testimony. It has also been suggested that the key to his trunk was still in his pocket, although this statement seems based on little more than speculation. The key itself is on display in the Poe Museum in Richmond, as is Poe's trunk. It is equally reasonable that Mrs. Clemm may simply have had a second key.
The only contemporary public reference to a specific cause of death was from the Baltimore Clipper, a somewhat cryptic "congestion of the brain" (The Poe Log, p. 851). Death certificates were apparently not required at the time and none is known to have been filed for Poe. Dr. Moran's November 15, 1849 letter to Maria Clemm unhelpfully avoids the simple information we would have liked by saying "Presuming you are already aware of the malady of which Mr. Poe died . . ." In the late 1960s, Birgit Bramsback made an ardent search for a death certificate or any official hospital records, but found nothing (Bramsback, "The Final Illness and Death of E. A. Poe," p 40, n. 3).
The Alcohol Theory
This is the theory most people think of when they are asked about Poe's death. That Poe engaged in bouts of drinking, particularly during Virginia's long illness (1842-1847) is well established, but how exactly he may have died of alcoholism has never really been explained. Clearly, Poe did not have an accident and his drinking seems to have been neither so consistent nor so intense as to cause sclerosis of the liver. It has been suggested that poor nutrition and a weakened condition brought on by other illnesses could have allowed delirium tremens to occur with fewer and less intense episodes of drinking than would normally be required, but none of these offerings completely explain his condition and the change of clothing.
J. E. Snodgrass felt certain that alcohol was the cause of Poe's death and repeated the claim in his temperance lectures from the early 1850s. In 1856, his account was published in the Women's Temperance Paper. It was revised and published again in 1867 in Beadle's Monthly ("The Facts of Poe's Death and Burial"). The fervor of Snodgrass's commitment to the temperance movement clearly colored his statements and apparently led him to exaggerate the story. He was even willing to manipulate the evidence in a way that discredits him as a reliable source. These manipulations were established, after Snodgrass's death in 1880, by Edward Spencer in the New York Herald for March 27, 1881 (substantially reprinted in J. A. Harrison's biography of Poe, pp. 328-332).
In 1878, Mrs. Susan A. T. Weiss related what she recalled as a prophetic incident during Poe's last days in Richmond in 1849. If true, the story may be extremely significant: ". . . on the day following he made his appearance among us, but so pale, so tremulous and apparently subdued as to convince me that he had been seriously ill. On this occasion he had been at his rooms at the 'Old Swan [Tavern]' where he was carefully tended by Mrs. Mackenzie's family, but on a second and more serious relapse he was taken by Dr. Mackenzie and Dr. [William] Gibbon Carter to Duncan's Lodge, where during some days his life was in imminent danger. Assiduous attention saved him, but it was the opinion of the physicians that another such attack would prove fatal. This they told him, warning him seriously of the danger. His reply was that if people would not tempt him, he would not fall" (Weiss, "The Last Days of Edgar A. Poe", p. 712).
Perhaps the strongest evidence for an alcohol-related death is J. P. Kennedy's October 10, 1849 note in his diary: "On Tuesday last Edgar A. Poe died in town here at the hospital from the effects of a debauch. . . . He fell in with some companion here who seduced him to the bottle, which it was said he had renounced some time ago. The consequence was fever, delirium, and madness, and in a few days a termination of his sad career in the hospital. Poor Poe! . . . A bright but unsteady light has been awfully quenched." (Charles H. Bonner, John Pendleton Kennedy; Gentleman from Baltimore, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961, p. 194. See also The Poe Log, p 852, which begins the quotation slightly differently as "On Sunday last" rather than "On Tuesday." Poe did die on Sunday.) Again, it should be noted that Kennedy was recording information second-hand, probably from his friend J. E. Snodgrass.
R. H. Stoddard's memoir of Poe states "It was believed at the time by his relatives in Baltimore that he drank with a friend while waiting between trains, in consequence of which he took a wrong train, and proceeded as far as Havre de Grace, whence he was brought back to Baltimore by the conductor of the Philadelphia train in a state bordering on delirium" (Stoddard, "Life of Poe," from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: A. C. Armstrong & Sons, 1884, I, p. 195). Stoddard then gives the final cause of Poe's death related below as the "cooping" theory.
John Ruben Thompson wrote to E. H. N. Patterson on November 9, 1849 "no confidence could be placed in him [Poe] in any relation of life, least of all in antagonism to his fatal weakness. He died, indeed, in delirium from drunkenness; the shadow of infamy beclouded his last moments" (Harrison, XVII, p. 404). It must, of course, be remembered that Thompson's statement was made without any first-hand knowledge. At some point, Thompson changed his opinion. During the early 1870's, Thompson began to lecture about Poe's life and attributed his death to the "cooping" theory detailed below.
After Thompson's death in 1874, Dr. Moran presented his own series of lectures, eventually published as A Defense of Edgar Allan Poe (1885). In this book, Moran noted "I have stated to you the fact that Edgar Allan Poe did not die under the effect of any intoxicant, nor was the smell of liquor upon his breath or person" (Moran, Defense of Poe, p. 55) As has already been noted, Moran is notoriously unreliable on many points and cannot be trusted on matters for which he is the only authority. In addition to the contradictions apparent in his own writings, Moran apparently told different stories to his friends as well. In 1889, the Rev. W. T. D. Clemm wrote to Elmer R. Reynolds, "Allow me to say that this remarkable statement of Dr. Moran both confuses and surprises me because it positively contradicts the statement made to me personally by the Doctor; and surprises me because he did not years ago give to the public what he now avers to be the true cause of Mr. Poe's death."
Disease and Other Medical Problems
In March of 1847, Dr. Valentine Mott, a famous New York doctor in his day, agreed with the diagnosis of Mrs. Shew, a trained nurse who had helped to care for Virginia during her long illness, that Poe had some sort of lesions on the brain and suffered from brain fever (The Poe Log, p. 694). T. O. Mabbott noted, "A modern medical man who saw a photograph of Poe told my friend Robert Hunter Paterson that a twist in the poet's face suggested to him a brain lesion. . . " (Mabbott, Poems, 1969, p. 562, n. 12).
In May of 1848, another doctor, Dr. John W. Francis, diagnosed that Poe suffered from heart disease, a diagnosis which Poe denied (Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 99).
That Poe was not completely well is obvious from his letters to Maria Clemm, July 7, 1849: "I have been so ill -- have had the cholera, or spasms quite as bad, and can now hardly hold the pen . . ." (Ostrom, Letters, p. 452) and July 14, "I am so ill while I write . . . " (Ostrom, Letters, p. 454). By July 19, he wrote under more favorable circumstances, "You will see at once, by the handwriting of this letter, that I am better -- much better in health and spirits" (Ostrom, Letters, p. 455).
It is possible that Poe had suffered some early incident which had later implications for his health. Mrs. Shew recalled a scar: "I have seen the scar of the wound in the left shoulder, when helping Mrs. Clemm change his dress or clothes while ill. She said only Virginia knew about it. She [Mrs. Clemm] did not. I asked him if he had been hurt --, in the region of the heart and he told me yes, and the rest as I wrote to you. His head was also hurt . . . " (Marie Louise Shew to John Ingram, May 16, 1875, quoted by John C. Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 139)
Moran states that his colleague, Dr. John C. S. Monkur, "gave it as his opinion that Poe would die from excessive nervous prostration and loss of nerve power, resulting from exposure, affecting the encephalon, a sensitive and delicate membrane of the brain" (Moran, A Defense of Poe, p. 71).
Arno Karlen theorizes that Poe may have suffered from a rare enzyme disorder. He believes that a combination of alcohol dehydrogenase deficiency syndrome and brain disease explain Poe's problems with alcohol, his fits of "madness" and his sudden death.
Tuberculosis, epilepsy, diabetes and even rabies have also been suggested. There are interesting elements -- and difficulties -- in all of these theories. The idea that Poe died from rabies, for example, was presented in 1996. The article, by Dr. Michael Benitez, was ostensibly based on Moran's account of Poe's final days, but apparently filtered through a case-study, itself taken largely from an article by Charles Scarlett, Jr. ("A Tale of Ratiocination: The Death and Burial of Edgar Allan Poe," Maryland Historical Magazine, 1978). Scarlett's badly-documented and rather confused presentation includes a comment that Poe "was given a drink of water to determine if he could swallow freely, but he did this with difficulty" (Scarlett, p. 365). Benitez takes this as evidence of hydrophobia, a fear of water that is crucial to his argument of rabies. Although the meager footnotes to Scarlett's article would lead one to believe that the observation is from Moran's 1885 book, it is in fact from his 1875 article in the New York Herald. Had Benitez actually read Moran's later telling of the tale, he would no doubt have been disappointed to find that the sentence was changed to read, "I put a small lump of ice in his mouth, and gave him a sip of water, to ascertain what difficulty, if any, he had in swallowing. He drank half a glass without any trouble" (Moran, 1885, p. 71). Without evidence of hydrophobia, the possiblity of rabies evaporates.
The Cooping Theory
This is the theory given in the vast majority of Poe biographies, although it cannot be proven true. Coincidence or not, the day Poe was found on the street was election day in Baltimore and the place near where he was found, Ryan's Fourth Ward Polls, was both a bar and a place for voting. In those days, Baltimore elections were notorious for corruption and violence. Political gangs were willing to go to great extremes to ensure the success of their candidates. Election ballots were stolen, judges were bribed and potential voters for the opposition intimidated. Some gangs were known to kidnap innocent bystanders, holding them in a room, called the "coop." These poor souls were then forced to go in and out of poll after poll, voting over and over again. Their clothing might even be changed to allow for another round. To ensure compliance, their victims were plied with liquor and beaten. Poe's weak heart would never have withstood such abuse. This theory appears to have been first offered publicly by John R. Thompson in the early 1870s to explain Poe's condition and the fact that he was wearing someone else's clothing. A possible flaw in the theory is that Poe was reasonably well-known in Baltimore and likely to be recognized.
Although not in keeping with the political aspects of this theory, there is an earlier suggestion that Poe was physically abused in his final days: "At the instigation of a woman, who considered herself injured by him, he was cruelly beaten, blow upon blow, by a ruffian who knew of no better mode of avenging supposed injuries. It is well known that a brain fever followed. . . ." (Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, "Autobiographic Notes: Edgar Allan Poe," Beadle's Monthly, February 3, 1867, p. 154). It was in reply to Mr. Smith's article that Dr. Snodgrass wrote his "The Facts of Poe's Death and Burial" noted above.
The eminent Poe scholar Dr. Thomas Ollive Mabbott, quoting Robert D'Unger, dismissed the cooping theory as "twaddle," but neither offers any explanation. It does answer some of the stranger details and may yet be shown to have some merit. James A. Harrison seems to accept the cooping theory. Didier's book The Poe Cult reprints his article on "The True Cause of Poe's Death" in which he quotes a letter from a person who claims to have seen Poe "in the coop." This information was sent to Didier by Alexander Hynds on December 8, 1879. Hynds, a Baltimore attorney, identified the source only as "my friend, a prominent man of San Francisco." Since the ultimate source for the letter remained anonymous, it has generally been dismissed as journalistic sensationalism. In his own biography of Poe, John Joyce quotes the identical letter, also without identifying the source, and claiming it as if it had been related to him personally (John A. Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, New York: F. T. Neely, 1901, pp. 195-197). Mrs. Weiss adds further to the confusion by repeating the same article, but attributing it, ironically, to Dr. Snodgrass (Weiss, Home Life of Poe, 207-211).
Didier had already published a slightly different account : "he met some of his old West-Point friends, who invited him to a champagne-supper that night. At first he refused to drink, but at last he was induced to take a glass of champagne. That set him off, and, in a few hours, he was madly drunk. In this state he wandered off from his friends, was robbed and beaten by ruffians, and left insensible in the street all night" (Didier, "The Grave of Poe," Appleton's Journal, VII, January 27, 1872, p. 104). One wonders if Didier's opinion was changed by convicing evidence or mere preference.
N. H. Morrison's letter to J. H. Ingram, November 27, 1874, includes these comments "The story of Poe's death has never been told. Nelson [Neilson] Poe has all the facts, but I am afraid may not be willing to tell them. I do not see why. The actual facts are less discreditable than the common reports published. Poe came to the city in the midst of an election, and that election was the cause of his death" (Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 49). Neilson, Poe's cousin, spoke briefly at the dedication of Poe's memorial grave in 1875, but made no statement concerning the circumstances of Edgar's death. If Neilson Poe had specific information about Poe's final days, he apparently took it with him to the grave.
William Hand Browne's letter to J. H. Ingram, August 24, 1874, includes these comments "The general belief here is, that Poe was seized by one of these gangs, (his death happening just at election-time; an election for sheriff took place on Oct. 4th), 'cooped,' stupefied with liquor, dragged out and voted, and then turned adrift to die" (Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 69).
According to Elizabeth Ellicott Poe and Vylla Poe Wilson, "The conclusion to be drawn, in view of all the factors and probabilities, is that he [Poe] was shanghaied shortly after his arrival in Baltimore, given liquor and opium to which he was peculiarly susceptible, and while in that irresponsible condition held until election day. A certain Passano, associated with that 'coop,' is said to have confessed to relatives in after years that this is what happened to the poet, but no formal record was made of his testimony to this effect" (E. E. Poe and V. P. Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe: A High Priest of the Beautiful, Washington: The Stylus Publishing Company, 1930, p. 79).
Bibliography:
Benitez, Dr. R. Michael, "Rabies," Maryland Medical Journal, XLV, September 1996, pp. 765-769. (Responding to substantial journalistic attention, a refutation "If Only Poe Had Succeeded When He Said Nevermore to Drink" appeared in the New York Times, Sept. 23, 1996, A14, by Burton R. Pollin and Robert Benedetto. See also, "Did Rabies Fell Edgar Allan Poe?" in Science News, CL, November 1996, p. 282. and "Mad Dogs and English Professors," in Lingua Franca, December 1996-January 1997.)
Bramsback, Birgit, "The Final Illness and Death of Edgar Allan Poe: An Attempt at Reassessment," Studia Neophilologica (University of Uppsala), XLII, 1970, pp. 40-59.
Carter, Dr. John F., "Edgar Poe's Last Night in Richmond", Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, LXX, no. 419, November 1902, pp. 562-566.(Dr. Carter seems to rely mostly on the earlier account by Mrs. Weiss from Scribner's Magazine, although he adds for the first time the detail that the cane contained a sword. The most reasonable reading of Carter's article suggests that Poe left the cane behind in Richmond, and that it never travelled with Poe to Baltimore.)
Clemm, Rev. William T. D., "[Letter to Dr. Elmer R. Reynolds]," February 20, 1889. (Ingram Collection of the University of Virginia, item 390.)
Harrison, James Albert, The Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. I, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Sons, 1903. (Previously published as volume I of The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902. Along with much generally repeated information, Harrison's biography includes the recollections of Bishop Fitzgerald, pp. 316-320; of W. J. Glenn, pp. 320-322; and of Dr. Moran's wife, Mary O. Moran, pp. 337-338.)
Hill, John S., "The Diabetic Mr. Poe?," I no. 2, October 1968, Poe Studies, p. 31. (A very brief notice.)
Karlen, Arno, "What Ailed Poor Poe: The Biohistorian as Skeptic," Napoleon's Glands and Other Adventures in Biohistory, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984, pp. 60-95.
Mabbott, Dr. Thomas Ollive, "Annals," The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume I: Poems, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1969, pp. 566-569.
Moran, Dr. John J. "[Letter to Maria Clemm]," November 15, 1849 (Reprinted in Arthur Hobson Quinn and Hart, Richard H., eds, Edgar Allan Poe: Letters and Documents and in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, New York: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1941, pp. 31-34.)
Moran, Dr. John J., "Official Memorandum of the Death of Edgar A. Poe," New York Herald, October 28, 1875.
Moran, Dr. John J., A Defense of Edgar Allan Poe, Washington, D.C.: W. F. Boogher, 1885.
Poe, Neilson, "[Letter to Maria Clemm]," October 11, 1849 (Reprinted in Quinn, Arthur Hobson and Hart, Richard H., eds, Edgar Allan Poe: Letters and Documents and in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, New York: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1941, pp. 30-31.)
Quinn, Arthur Hobson, "Richmond -- The Last Appeal," Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941, pp. 615-641.
Scarlett, Charles, Jr. "A Tale of Ratiocination: The Death and Burial of Edgar Allan Poe," Maryland Historical Magazine, LXXIII, no. 4, 1978, pp. 360-374. (It should be noted that Scarlett is mistaken in his claim that the wrong body was exhumed in 1875, when Poe's remains were moved to the fine memorial that now marks his final resting place.)
Snodgrass, Dr. Joseph Evan, "The Facts of Poe's Death and Burial," Beadle's Monthly, March 1867, pp. 283-288.
Stern, Philip Van Doren, "The Strange Death of Edgar Allan Poe," Saturday Review, XXXII, October 15, 1949, pp. 8-9, 28-30.
Thomas, Dwight and Jackson, David K., The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987, pp. 843-854.
Walsh, John Evangelist, Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998. (Although it claims to "definitively untangle more than a century of speculation" about Poe's death, this book is little more than a rehashing of the usual information. After rebuking others for speculation, Mr. Walsh proceeds to unleash a wild flurry of his own, boldly stating, in the near absence of any actual evidence, that Poe was attacked by two supposed brothers of Sarah Elmira Royster. Poe, as has been long accepted, had become engaged in Richmond to his childhood sweetheart, then a widow. It is also accepted that her family was not pleased with the proposed union. Mr. Walsh suggests that these brothers followed Poe to Baltimore and forced him to drink so that his pledge of temperance would appear to have been broken and the engagement called off. He further speculates that John R. Thompson invented the "clever" theory of cooping to protect these men. Overall, this book is an interesting and entertaining read, but rather dubious as scholarship.)
Weiss, Susan Archer Tally, "Edgar A. Poe," New York Herald, April 26, 1876, p. 4.
Weiss, Susan Archer Tally, "The Last Days of Edgar A. Poe," Scribner's Monthly, XV, March 1878, pp. 707-716.
Weiss, Susan Archer [Tally], "The Mystery of Fate," Home Life of Poe, New York: Broadway Publishing Company, 1907, pp. 203-211. (Although she knew Poe, Mrs. Weiss is not to be fully relied upon in the details she provides, many of which are documentably in error.)
I love this tradition, for some reason. It touches the romantic in me to think that 160 years after he died, his impact is felt by someone he never knew, so much that a trip to his grave is an annual tradition. It's a fitting, sepulchural tribute to the man.
Some employee is involved in driving this person in. Maybe in a trunk!
There is inside help to pull this off.
Gives the employees a feeling of being special if this thing continues as a mystery IMO.
[Text: Mrs. Susan A. T. Weiss, The Last Days of Edgar A. Poe, Scribner's Magazine, March 1878, pp. 707-716.]
File under:
- Goths run wild
- Homo-Goths run wild
- Homo-erotic Poe worship run wild
A real old friend.
Well, whoever is doing it, we do have one clue: they leave the cognac bottle UNOPENED. So it can't be Ted Kennedy.
Good read. Thanks.
I didn't hear about this.
Must have happened,
While I nodded nearly napping.
Its been going on almost 60 years.
That said, reading the whole article, it does seem like this has been passed on from one person down to sons, etc.
I think the original guy is dead now.
ha ha...yeah, probably
I wonder what happens to all that cognac?
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