Edgar Allan Poe

Biography

Poe's death

On the 3rd of October, he was found on the streets, "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 the 7th without ever having been coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in the condition—delirious, and wearing clothes that were not his own—in which he was found.

The precise cause of his death is disputed.

Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, an acquaintance of Poe's 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 popularise this interpretation of the events. He was, however, a supporter of the temperance movement who found Poe a useful example in his work; and later scholars have shown that his account of Poe's death distorts the 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 can not be considered entirely reliable.

Numerous other theories have been proposed over the years, including several forms of brain disease, various types of enzyme deficiency, rabies (generally considered unlikely), and the idea that Poe was shanghaied, drugged, and used as a pawn in a ballot-box-stuffing scam aimed at an election that was held on the day he was found. Some conspiracy theorists, notably Michael A. Hoffman II, even propose that Poe was murdered by Freemasons.

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 truth of Poe's death will never be known.

Legacy

Poe's curious and often nightmarish work greatly influenced the horror and fantasy genres. He is also credited with having been the principal initiator of the genre of detective fiction with his three stories about Auguste Dupin, the most famous of which is "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The Mystery Writers of America have named their awards for excellence in the genre the "Edgars^sm" (compare with the Oscars etc).

Poe's literary reputation was greater abroad than it was in the United States, perhaps given to the US's general repulsion to the macabre. Rufus Griswold became his literary executor; in fact, Griswold was a rival and an enemy. In the U.S.A., Griswold circulated a "Memoir of the Author" which portrayed Poe as a drunkard and opium addict. These defamatory reminisicences did little to commend Poe to U.S. literary society.

In France, where he is commonly known as "Edgar Poe", Charles Baudelaire translated his stories and several of the poems into French. Baudelaire was the right man for this job, and his excellent translations meant that Poe enjoyed a vogue among avant-garde writers in France while being ignored in his native land. From France, writers like Algernon Charles Swinburne caught the Poe-bug, and Swinburne's musical verse owes much to Poe's technique. Poe was much admired, also, by the school of Symbolism, and Stéphane Mallarmé dedicated several poems to him.

There is no doubt that he inspired mystery writers who came after him, particularly Arthur Conan Doyle in the Hound of the Baskervilles.

Notable works

Poems

• "The Raven"
• "Annabel Lee"
• "The Bells"
• "Lenore"
• "Ulalume"

Stories

• Auguste Dupin:
  • "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
  • "The Balloon-Hoax"
  • "The Purloined Letter"
  • "The Mystery of Marie Roget"
• "The Devil in the Belfry"
• "The Fall of the House of Usher"
• "The Pit and the Pendulum"
• "The Black Cat"
• "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• "The Masque of the Red Death"
• "A Descent into the Maelstrom"
• "The Gold Bug"
• "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdimar"
• "The Cask of Amontillado" (see Crime fiction for a discussion)

Novels

• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Adaptations

External links

• Project Gutenberg e-texts of works by Edgar Allan Poe
• Some short stories and poetry
• The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
  • includes A review of the known facts about Poe's death
• The Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Awards Database
• Peter Hammill album "the Fall of the House of Usher"

Referenced By