Death of Edgar Allan Poe

Death of Edgar Allan Poe

Poe's body lies beneath this monument in Baltimore. The death of the author is shrouded in mystery and debate.
Date	October 7, 1849; 174 years ago (1849-10-07)
Location	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Cause	Undetermined

The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious in regard to both the cause of death and the circumstances leading to it. American author Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious and disheveled at a tavern in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 3. He sought the help of magazine editor Joseph E. Snodgrass and was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he was treated for apparent intoxication. Poe had no visitors in the hospital and gave no account of how he came to be in his condition before dying on October 7 at age 40.

Much of the extant information about the last few days of Poe's life comes from his attending physician, John Joseph Moran, though his credibility is questionable.^[1] Poe was buried after a small funeral at the back of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, but his remains were moved to a new grave with a larger monument in 1875. The newer monument also marks the burial place of Poe's wife, Virginia, and his mother-in-law, Maria. Theories as to what caused Poe's death include suicide, murder, cholera, hypoglycemia, rabies, syphilis, influenza, brain tumor and that Poe was a victim of cooping. Evidence of the influence of alcohol is strongly disputed.^[2]

After Poe's death, Rufus Wilmot Griswold wrote his obituary under the pseudonym "Ludwig". Griswold, who became the literary executor of Poe's estate, was actually a rival of Poe and later published his first full biography, depicting him as a depraved, drunk, drug-addled madman. Much of the evidence for this image of Poe is believed to have been forged by Griswold, and though friends of Poe denounced it,^[3] this interpretation had lasting impact.