Edgar Allan Poe was a writer in the 19th century famous for his eerie literary works. Most of his family died from tuberculosis when he was young, and he lived in poverty his entire life. However, the true reason for his death is unknown. Evidence suggests that Poe died of cooping.…
After carefully examining Edgar Allan Poe’s conditions, I have come to the conclusion that Poe fell victim to a gang engaging in cooping and later died of alcohol poisoning. The Smithsonian Magazine states that Poe had a high intolerance to alcohol, so the reward given to him by the gang members likely influenced his death. Not only was cooping a popular practice in Baltimore at the time, Poe was found wandering about the streets near a voting poll where cooping was practiced. He was wearing second hand clothes, which were meant to pose as a disguise. As stated by the University of Maryland, Poe had a long history with the abuse of alcohol and opiate drugs, but he hadn't consumed any alcohol within six months before his death. Knowing his…
On October 3, 1849, Edgar was found in the bathroom at the Gunnell’s Hall, a public house that was being used as a polling place for an election. The magazine editor, Joseph Snodgrass, sent Poe to the Washington College Hospital, where he spent his last days in and out of consciousness, far away from home, and surrounded by nothing but strangers. They were never able to explain what happened to him to cause any of this. On October 7, 1849, only at the age of…
Alcohol appears frequently in Poe’s stories, usually connected to some following violent act or event: ” One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its…
Edger Allen Poe was an amazing author but his home life was far from perfect life. There is much controversy surrounding Poe’s unexpected death. Some believed that Poe had died of alcoholism while others believed that he had died of rabies/encephalitis. However, it is plausible that Poe had died of rabies/encephalitis because of the symptoms and the witness accounts on the night that Poe died.…
Edgar Allen Poe had drunk all throughout his age. “Dr. Snodgrass attributed his death to a lethal amount of alcohol “(Silverman 186). I think the quote means that Poe was always drinking and the alcohol had just caught up to his body. The author quotes that “Poe may have been too drunk to care about protecting himself against the wind and rain” (Silverman 186). Poe may not have known what was going on or he just didn’t care what was going on. According to the author “Supplementary accounts of Poe’s alcoholic condition came from Joseph Walker a Baltimore printer who found him” (Silverman 189) ... I believe that Poe was drinking before he died.…
Edgar Allan Poe believed that he was cursed due to the fact that three of his closest family members died of Tuberculosis. All throughout Poe’s life, he did not have anyone to guide him or care for him. Many of his loved ones had died. Later in Poe’s life, he started writing horror stories that all had a common theme of fear and death. He was known as “the Father of Horror”. His writings were not as popular during the time that he was alive as they are now. Did Edgar Allan Poe’s awful life inspire his macabre style of writing? Edgar Allan Poe’s life directly affected his writing due to his awful life experiences, the death that occurred in his life, and his macabre writing style.…
According to the researcher and writer of “Poe’s Death is Rewritten as Case of Rabies, Not Telltale Alcohol” Dr. R Michael Benitez believes it was because of rabies. Dr. Benitez states in his article that Poe was indeed hallucinating, and shouting at imaginary companions (187-188). Also, when woken up one day Poe refused to drink alcohol and could only drink water with great difficulty (187). Dr. Benitez also states that is a common case of rabies because “Rabies victims frequently exhibit hydrophobia or a fear for water because it is painful to swallow” (187). Poe didn’t know where he was, and couldn’t remember anything as well. Dr. Benitez also states when Poe came to him he was not drunk, and there was no evidence of him being bitten. Statistics show that most human rabies victims do not remember being bitten, and bites takes about a year to appear…
During his time, Poe was known for his heavy drinking. In Silverman’s writing he states, “Dr. Sondgrass attributed his death to a lethal amount of alcohol (Silverman 186). This doctors opinion shoes that even upon his death, Poe was still drinking heavily. According to Benedetto, “Evidence of Poe’s chronic binges is strewn through his letters, in periodic admissions of ‘recovers’ and promises to his wife, Virginia, and her mother to reform” (Benedetto 189). The quote from Benedetto’s letter gives evidence of Poe’s alcohol abuse as seen in his letters to his…
In closing, it is clear that Poe’s death was most likely caused by rabies. With all of the witness accounts, and information provided from experts, there is no way that Poe’s death could have been from alcoholism. Furthermore, Poe had all the symptoms of rabies. Finally, the weather was bad, which would have made him more susceptible to infections like rabies. Poe was mysterious and interesting which is ironic because he had a mysterious and interesting…
When going into The Possible Causes of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death assignment, many of my friends had told me that before beginning their research they already had somewhat of an idea of what they thought had killed the writer. I, on the other hand, did not. While I had…
October 7,1949 was a very normal day, until the body of Edgar Allan Poe was found (outside of a local bar), the mystery begins with his symptoms when he was found, and the fact that nobody knows how these came about, the symptoms inevitably lead to his death. Throughout the years there have been many theories, the alcohol theory or the rabies theory, but the theory most believable is the cooping theory. Although there are many "gaps" in the Cooping theory (as there are in all of the other theories), it has the most evidence concerning a conclusion about how Edgar Allan Poe died.…
Many things are known about Edgar Allan Poe, such as the fact he married his twelve-year-old cousin, and that he was a writer, but just how did this famous man die? Some people believe he was suffering from encephalitis or rabies. Others believe a political kidnapping was the cause of his death. The most realistic cause was that Poe died from alcoholism, branching from his history of drinking binges and because he was a known alcoholic.…
occurred in Poe’s life. From his fatal attraction to alcohol all the way to his encounter with the…
Edgar Allen Poe lived a more than devastating life. Poe was born in 1809 in the city of Boston, Massachusetts to two professional actors. Before reaching the age of four, both of Poe’s parents passed away. Poe was then raised in Richmond by Frances Keeling Valentine Allan and her husband John Allan, an exporter from Virginia. Throughout his childhood, Poe was constantly enrolled in the best academies and was given a better education than most people at the time. As he grew older, Poe attended the University of Virginia, but soon had to dropout due to insufficient funding from his stepfather. After enlisting in the army and attending West Point University, Poe received a degree of recognition for not only his immaculate poetry and fiction, but also because he was an exceptional literary critic. After the writing of his well-known poem “The Raven,” Poe achieved popular success. Then, however, another misfortune struck Poe’s life when his wife, Virginia, died from tuberculosis in 1847. Edgar Allan Poe passed away on October 7, 1849 “never regaining sufficient consciousness to relate to the details of the final days of his life” (Milne). Poe’s life was noticeably far from desirable for anyone, but he gained knowledge of life and placed…