EDGAR ALLAN POE MYSTERY

The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. In an analysis almost 147 years after his death, doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center believe that writer Edgar Allan Poe may have died as a result of rabies, not from complications of alcoholism. Poe's medical case was reviewed by R. Michael Benitez, M.D., a cardiologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His review is published in the September 1996 issue of Maryland Medical Journal.

"No one can say conclusively that Poe died of rabies, since there was no autopsy after his death," says Dr. Benitez, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "But the historical accounts of Poe's condition in the hospital a few days before his death point to a strong possibility that he had rabies."

Poe was 40 years old when he died on October 7, 1849. He had traveled by train from Richmond, Virginia to Baltimore a few days earlier.

Poe was discovered lying unconscious on September 28 on a wooden plank outside Ryan's saloon on Lombard St. in Baltimore. He was taken to Washington College Hospital (now Church Hospital).

Historical accounts of his hospitalization indicate that at first he was delirious with tremors and hallucinations, 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."

"Poe's death is one of the most mysterious deaths in literary history, and it provided us with an interesting case in which to discuss many principles of medicine," says Dr. Mackowiak, who runs the weekly Clinical Pathologic Conference at the medical center.

Dr. Mackowiak agrees with Dr. Benitez that rabies was the most likely cause of Poe's death, based on the available evidence. Edgar Allan Poe is buried in a cemetery next to Westminister Hall at Fayette and Greene Streets, just one block from the University of Maryland Medical Center.

 
The material was taken from http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/news-releases-17.htm

Major Works

In late 1830s, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, a collection of stories. It contained several of his most spine-tingling tales, including "The Fall of the House of Usher," "Ligeia" and "William Wilson." Poe launched the new genre of detective fiction with 1841's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." A writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for "The Gold Bug," a suspenseful tale of secret codes and hunting treasure.

 

Poe became a literary sensation in 1845 with the publication of the poem "The Raven." It is considered a great American literary work and one of the best of Poe's career. In the work, Poe explored some of his common themes—death and loss. An unknown narrator laments the demise of his great love Lenore. That same year, he found himself under attack for his stinging criticisms of his fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poe claimed that Longfellow, a widely popular literary figure, was a plagiarist, and this written assault on Longfellow created a bit of backlash for Poe.

Continuing work in different forms, Poe examined his own methodology and writing in general in several essays, including "The Philosophy of Composition," "The Poetic Principle" and "The Rationale of Verse." He also produced another thrilling tale, "The Cask of Amontillado," and poems such as "Ulalume" and "The Bells."

The material was taken from http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160

Edgar Allan Poe - Mini Biography

Edgar Allan Poe, his writing style

Born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction.

Harold Bloom said: "Poe has an uncanny talent for exposing our common nightmares and hysteria lurking beneath our carefully structured lives. "

Poe’s writing possesses indubitable literary merit and serves as an encouraging example for aspiring writers. His writing demonstrates stylistic brilliance in the form of varying vocabulary, remarkable repetition, and instrumental imagery.

Poe's best known fiction works are Gothic, a genre he followed to appease the public taste. His most recurring themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. Many of his works are generally considered part of the dark romanticism genre, a literary reaction to transcendentalism, which Poe strongly disliked. In many of Poe's works, setting is used to paint a dark and gloomy picture in our minds. His mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. Poe’s psychologically thrilling tales examining the depths of the human psyche earned him much fame during his lifetime and after his death.

Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery and terror and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.  Poe uses a subtle style, tone, subconscious motivation of characters and serious themes  to shift his readers towards a demented point of view.  This is the unique tactics Poe utilizes that makes him an impressionable writer and poet.

Beyond horror, Poe also wrote satires, humor tales, and hoaxes. For comic effect, he used irony and ludicrous extravagance, often in an attempt to liberate the reader from cultural conformity.

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My first impressions after the reading

I have already read the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Poe. Like many of his other works, the "Tell-Tale Heart" is a dark story. Is it interesting? As for me, yes. Especially, when you read it at night, by the light of  the night-lamp, and there is no one near you. Madness and paranoia are the dominant impressions I’ve got from "The Tell Tale Heart". 

During my reading,  it was given the impression that I heard that heartbeat, the “low, dull, quick sound--much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”, that the old man’s eye, “a pale blue eye, with a film over it”, was piercing into me. On the one hand, I believed that the main character is not crazy, he insists so skilfully on it. He never considers himself mad, his mind is consumed with thoughts of his master's "evil eye" tormenting him in silent agony. But on the other hand, he is giving the impression of serious hallucinations or paranoia. It becomes clear that this madman cannot judge reality from fantasy. In this story Poe takes us to the mind of a mad man as he struggles with the thoughts that caused him to do the unthinkable.

So, I advise you to read this story and to share with your impressions)