What happened to Poe?

[DeathAngel]

I'm wondering what in god's name happened to Poe?!
His sister died (i thunk) & his love,
he fell into a state of grief, and poof
was gone just like that...
Anyone know what happened to him?

I'm a big Poe fan, muahaha,
I love how he did "The Fall of the Ursher House"
and for some reason i thought the woman in the story was a vamp, lol
he portrayed the craziness extremely nice,
and of course "The Telltale Heart",
another one of his insane, stories that deals more with guilt, it makes me wonder...
do these stories that he miracuslously came up with have anything to do with him & his personal life?

ooo, mystery!

[HannibalBarca]

Poe was one of the greatest writers of all time, but he fell from grace when he drunk himself to his death. His cause of death is still disputed, but he probably killed himself. Ever since January 1949, 100 years after Poe's death and on his birthday, an anonymous vistor has left three roses and a bottle of cognac on his grave. Apparently a new person has done it lately, and that person is still unknown. Poe's death and his visitors will always be mysteries, and perhaps that's the way Poe would want it. He was a master of mystery.

[Orpheus]

I find it, in some ways, hard to believe that Poe intentionally killed himself. In the weeks leading up to his death, we know that he had been lecturing and was making a fair amount of money (for the time). Also, in one of the last few letters to his aunt he wrote "The papers here are praising me to death-and I haave been received every where with enthusiasm. Be sure and preserve all the printed scraps I have sent you and keep up my file of the Lit. World." This does not seem like the man who was in constant desperation but a man who had finally seen a turn in his luck. Perhaps this luck was short-lived and he was let down once again, sending him into the downward spiral that marked nearly all of his adult life and eventually leading to his death.

The question I have is that, I always heard that Poe was addicted to Opium. And in reading some biographies and his letters, I haven't seen a single reference to his addiction to opium, other than in his stories, but numerous ones made about his addiction to alcohol. Was Poe and opium addict?

[LC_Lancer]

His cause of death is still disputed, but he probably killed himself.

I find it, in some ways, hard to believe that Poe intentionally killed himself. … Perhaps this luck was short-lived and he was let down once again, sending him into the downward spiral that marked nearly all of his adult life and eventually leading to his death.

I agree with Orpheus. I do not think he committed suicide.
On September 27, 1849, EAP left Richmond, Virginia, on his way to New York. No reliable evidence exists about EAP's whereabouts until a week later on October 3, when he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, outside Ryan's Tavern (sometimes referred to as Gunner's Hall). A printer named Joseph W. Walker found him and according to Walker, EAP was "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance". He was found lying in the streets on Election Day wearing someone else's clothes. EAP was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died at 5 a.m. on Sunday, October 7. EAP was never coherent enough to explain how he came to be in this condition.

Theories as to what caused EAP's death include suicide, murder, cholera, rabies, syphilis and that EAP was a victim of cooping. Cooping was a practice by which unwilling participants were forced to vote, often several times over, for a particular candidate in an election sometimes drunk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_o...note-Krutch4-1

[LC_Lancer]

The question I have is that, I always heard that Poe was addicted to Opium. And in reading some biographies and his letters, I haven't seen a single reference to his addiction to opium, other than in his stories, but numerous ones made about his addiction to alcohol. Was Poe and opium addict?

I do not think so. A doctor who knew him wrote that he did not witness anything that would indicate that he was an opium addict.

[LC_Lancer]

Poe was one of the greatest writers of all time, but he fell from grace when he drunk himself to his death.

I don't think he fell from grace at all. The mystery and tragedy of his early death helped to elevate him in many people’s eyes. Some people see the circumstances of his death as mirrored in his life; an enigma wrapped up in misfortune. While he had a very bumpy road during life and ended in vagueness, he was still able to put on paper lasting images that are beyond compare of any other author. While others wonder what other tales he would have written. And for others, his early demise enveloped him in a cocoon of believability.

[GREENWOLFE1962]

It is romantic to believe that he died of a broken heart .
But as we have learned , truth is more mundane .
Remember that he lived in a time that those of us who
live today cannot imagine . The mid 1800's may as well
have been the 1500's . Death , was everywhere and often .

Greenwolfe 1962

[GREENWOLFE1962]

I want to make clear ,that my comment above was related to the primative
medical profession . Poe , might have died of anything . No one will ever really
know .


Greenwolfe 1962