MuseVision

Edgar Allan Poe

What Really Happened on that October Day in Baltimore?

Edgar Allan Poe left Richmond in Early October, 1849. He Boarded a Train bound for Philadelphia. It would be his last journey in this world. He was found desperately ill and delirious in a Baltimore alley. After being taken to a hospital for treatment, he died four days later, on October 7^th, 1849

The poet, novelist, literary critic and founder of the short story, had succumbed to a mystery illness. Poe was known to people in Baltimore. He had lived there in the late 1830’s before moving to New York. Rumors soon spread that Poe’s delirium was caused by extreme intoxication; that he must have gotten off the train and “took to drink”. His excessive drinking was well known. What was not well known is that he had quit drinking six months before this incident. Nonetheless, the idea that Poe died because of alcohol consumption persisted until the day he died. This speculation was by no means the end of the story as even richer fantasies came to hold sway. It was alleged that he had been coerced off the train and fooled into helping to pad a ballot box during a local election. Over the years, as the fire of controversy died down, the ill-begotten concepts seemed to stick in the public mind and the conjecture seemed to resemble a black raven croaking out “nevermore” over the whole subject.

What in the world was this great author doing in the city, anyway? It seems that Poe’s wife, Virginia and her mother had originally resided in Baltimore. After several years of marriage, Virginia died in 1847 of consumption while the couple was residing in The Bronx, New York. Poe had spent many years bouncing back and forth between New York and Philadelphia and apparently Virginia’s mother had moved to Philadelphia and kept up a good relationship with Edgar even after Virginia’s death. When Virginia passed on, Edgar decided to return to Richmond where he began a courtship with a woman he had known since childhood, Sarah Royster, who was already a widow and who had inherited some degree of wealth. In fact, Edgar was on his way to Philly to escort Virginia’s mother back to Richmond for the upcoming Wedding, when the ill-fated escapade in Baltimore took place. Poe’s life is fascinatingly complicated and my narrative deals only with pertinent points. This brings the reader up to the first week in October, ’49, however, and answers why he was in the city at that time.

Writers have always had to deal with charges of drunkenness. Poe had a terrible problem with it, but there may be evidence that his death was the result of a different problem altogether. Dr. R. Michael Benitez, of the University of Maryland Medical Center, published a new set of findings in 1996, which concludes that Poe may have died of a Rabies infection.

Dr. Benitez became part of a random medical inquiry into old cases and did not know he was reviewing the Poe case beforehand. His ideas about the case are speculative opinions made after carefully reviewing the known facts. Here are some of the interesting conclusions from a 1996 University of Maryland News Release entitled “Edgar Allan Poe Mystery”.

“Historical accounts of his hospitalization indicate that at first he was delirious with tremors and hallucinations, and then he slipped into a coma. He emerged from the coma, was calm and lucid, but then lapsed again into a delirious state, became combative, and required restraint. He died on his fourth day in the hospital. According to an account published in the Maryland Historical Magazine in December 1978, the Baltimore Commissioner of Health, Dr. J.F.C. Handel certified that the cause of Poe's death was "congestion of the brain."

In his analysis, Dr. Benitez examined all of the possible causes for delirium, which include trauma, vascular disorders in the brain, neurological problems such as epilepsy, and infections. Alcohol withdrawal is also a potential cause of tremors and delirium, and Poe was known to have abused alcohol and opiate drugs. However, the medical records indicate that Poe had abstained from alcohol for six months before his death, and there was no evidence of alcohol use when he was admitted.

"In addition, it is unusual for patients suffering from alcohol withdrawal to become acutely ill, recover for a brief time, and then worsen and die," says Dr. Benitez, who adds that withdrawal from opiates does not produce the same scenario of symptoms as Poe's illness.

Dr. Benitez says in the final stages of rabies, it is common for people to have periods of confusion that come and go, along with wide swings in pulse rate and other body functions, such as respiration and temperature. All of that occurred for Poe, according to medical records kept by Dr. John J. Moran who cared for Poe in his final days. In addition, the median length of survival after the onset of serious symptoms is four days, which is exactly the number of days Poe was hospitalized before his death.

Poe's doctor also wrote that in the hospital, Poe refused alcohol he was offered and drank water only with great difficulty. Dr. Benitez says that seems to be a symptom of hydrophobia, a fear of water, which is a classic sign of rabies.”

Dr. Benitez goes on to speculate as to how Poe could have contracted rabies, but considering the world of his time, with it’s close contact between animals and people, and there being no medical treatment for the disease, it is simple to see the possibilities. At any rate, it was a sad ending for one of our Nations most brilliant writers. Even if you never read anything he wrote and just knew him by his biography, he would still be able to capture your interest. How sad it must have been for the people who loved him to receive the news of this final event. It seems as though he needed someone to look out after him on that train trip or if it was indeed rabies, perhaps he could have received earlier treatment. Would he have been happy with his new Bride, financial stability and surroundings? Would he have been able to weather the coming storm in American history? He was, after all, born in Massachusetts yet raised in the South. He would have been in an unusual position in his society just a few years hence.

What happened on that October day in Baltimore? No one knows for sure. With all the speculation, one thing is clear. Edgar Allan Poe sought his muse with enormous passion while enduring great personal suffering. At MuseVision, we prefer the rabies solution to the traditional “what do you expect of a lush” scenario.