Mandi’s Mysteries and Pampering…on Poe
“Lord, help my poor soul.” These cryptic last words form the epitome of the life—and death—of Edgar Allen Poe. A champion of the macabre, his tales chill the hearts of schoolage children living next door to you. The Telltale Heart, the Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven find their way into every child’s dreams after a unit on American literature.
The first I read The Pit and the Pendulum at the tender age of twelve, my hands were clenched and my heart was pounding in anticipation of a bloody demise. I actually covered my eyes so I wouldn’t see it, and then peek through my fingers to finish reading the story. Yes, Poe grips the mind and the heart.
You have to wonder what kind of life he lived, but even more, mystery shrouds how he died. Yes, he drank too much. Yes, he might have taken some hallucinogens (which explains a great deal) along the way…but these don’t explain his demise. Let’s review the facts.
The date was October 7th. His final days included a trip from Richmond, Virginia to New York City. He traveled by steamer and stopped in Baltimore on the way. No one knows what he did in the next few days, but we do know about his last few hours. He was dining in a pub, so let’s assume he wasn’t on drugs at the moment. It was a public setting in 1849, drug dealing in a public setting was not the norm. Did he dabble in substance abuse? Yes. Did it kill him? No. It’s kind of like COVID—a comorbidity but not the causative factor. Indeed, the symptoms surrounding his last hours fit no discernible pattern, spawning theories like rabies, syphilis, influenza, cholera, hypoglycemia and murder. None of the theories are conclusive, but Alcoholism? I don’t think so. Let’s talk about mwha, ha, MURDER!
Theory #1: Let’s begin with the plausible, On October 3rd he was described as being in “great distress.” He was disheveled and wearing someone else’s clothing. He ended up being taken to the hospital where he drifted in and out of consciousness, muttered strange things and finally died with no explanation of where his clothing had gone and what had happened to him. One popular theory is that he died from Cooping, and I bet you’ve never head of it…neither had I. It has nothing to do with raising chickens. It was actually a common form of voting fraud in that period of time. Victims were kidnapped, drugged and forced to drink various concoctions, disguised over and over again in order to cast several votes for a particular candidate.
This is a possibility, because he was at a polling location when he collapsed. But think about it. Here’s a worldly man, someone who has dabbled with the dregs of society, and we are being asked to believe that someone got the drop on him, kidnapped him, and forced him to imbibe enough alcohol to make them do his will. For someone who was already into substance abuse, that would have taken quite a stash of junk and hardly cost effective or worthy of someone’s extended effort.
Theory #1: Never one to mince words, Poe waxed strong in a long rivalry with a poetry critic named Griswold. As a matter of fact, Poe did little to endear himself to society at large. He married his first cousin, a thirteen year old fourteen years his junior. He lied about her age, and robbing the cradle did little for his stature in society. The only painting of her, as a corpse, is just a part of the drama surrounding his life…but these were not motives for murder. All researchers admit that like his writing, he met a very macabre end.
One biographer wrote that while in Baltimore Poe ran into old friends from West Point, joined them for drinks, and became wildly intoxicated by a glass of champagne. He ran into the streets and was
set upon by ruffians who beat him senseless, causing his death.
Um, no. No alcoholic is going to go gaga over a glass of champagne.
Theory #2: At this time in life Poe was engage to a wealthy fiancée named Elmira Shelton. Some speculate he was murdered by her three brothers who had warned him against marrying their sister. It is suggested they accosted him, beat him senseless, and that he hid from them in a disguise until he collapsed a week later from head wounds. Um, no.
Poe was no stranger to debates and public disapproval, and these wealthy men had little reason to risk their lives in murdering their sister’s fiancée. It would have been much easier to sabotage the wedding.
Theory #3: Let’s begin with the plausible, On October 3rd he was described as being in “great distress.” He was disheveled and wearing someone else’s clothing. He ended up being taken to the hospital where he drifted in and out of consciousness, muttered strange things and finally died with no explanation of where his clothing had gone and what had happened to him. One popular theory is that he died from Cooping, and I bet you’ve never head of it…neither had I. It has nothing to do with raising chickens. It was actually a common form of voting fraud in that period of time. Victims were kidnapped, drugged and forced to drink various concoctions, disguised over and over again in order to cast several votes for a particular candidate.
This is a possibility, because he was at a polling location when he collapsed. But think about it. Here’s a worldly man, someone who has dabbled with the dregs of society, and we are being asked to believe that someone got the drop on him, kidnapped him, and forced him to imbibe enough alcohol to make them do his will. For someone who was already into substance abuse, that would have taken quite a stash of junk and hardly cost effective or worthy of someone’s extended effort.