The Final Days of Edgar Allan Poe: Nevermore in Baltimore(Perspectives on Edgar Allan Poe)

Occurring in a time of primitive medicine and inconsistent record-keeping, Poe’s death has become one of the enduring mysteries of American literature. David F. Gaylin’s book marks the first attempt to offer a comprehensive and balanced study of this historical event. After chronicling the circumstances that may have contributed to the poet’s death, the book examines key details about the story. It traces Poe’s movements and personal encounters before also exploring how Poe was handled and treated by others who attempted to come to his aid. Proceeding with the liveliness of a detective story, the discussion sheds new light on these events, and it offers new information about the burial of Poe’s body and the subsequent relocations of his tomb. With the addition of supplementary reference materials including a register of formally proposed causes of death, a timeline of relevant events, and a map of Poe’s final movements in Baltimore, this book is an essential resource for both scholars and general readers seeking answers to the mystery of Poe’s death.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1Peaks and Pits, and Pendulum Swings Chapter 2On to Richmond Chapter 3Missing in Mobtown Chapter 4“The Worse for Wear” Chapter 5Beware the Ward Heelers Chapter 6Hospital on the Hill Chapter 7The Island of Dr. Moran Chapter 8“Congestion of the Brain” Chapter 9Premature Burials, an Epilogue Appendices AProposed and Popular Causes of Poe’s Death BTimeline of Poe’s Final Days CNotes on Relevant Individuals Mentioned in the Text DDr. Moran’s Letter to Maria Clemm, November 15, 1849

About the Author :
David F. Gaylin is president of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore and author of Edgar Allan Poe’s Baltimore (2015).

Review :
Gaylin assumes that attempts to solve the riddle of Poe's death confront two mysteries: "how did he come to be discovered in a tavern in East Baltimore, and what illness or condition actually brought him down?" (p. 3). No suspense is ruined if the most likely "illness or condition" involves alcohol, which Poe did not handle well. Readers still debate the 42 possible causes of death adduced by Gaylin in his endearingly obsessive appendix. By all accounts, Poe deteriorated after his wife's death in January 1847. Returning from Virginia in 1849, he was found incoherent in Baltimore, then a "hotbed of criminality" (p. 89). Because Poe never recovered, the mystery of his death endures, complicated by the work of Dr. John Moran, who oversaw "the hospital in which Edgar Allan Poe perished" (p. 149). For Gaylin, "no one has done more [than Moran] to mislead those seeking the facts of Poe's final days" (p. 149). However, Moran wrote "only in defense" of Poe, while the notorious Rufus Griswold "endeavored as much mythology in his effort to maim the poet's reputation" (p. 165). Recommended. All readers. David F. Gaylin has set out to solve the greatest literary mystery of the nineteenth century—the cause of Edgar Allan Poe's death. In the process, Gaylin has sorted through dozens of strange and contradictory accounts of Poe's final days, and he has scrutinized an eccentric cast of eyewitnesses. This investigation offers a readable, well-paced detective story that will appeal to both Poe scholars and the general public. This book makes an important contribution to studies of Poe by weaving the varied accounts, opinions, and scholarly theories about Poe's death into a coherent narrative. While Gaylin proposes an answer to the mystery, the book's greatest value lies in its presentation of material allowing for the specialist and the amateur to make their own informed decisions.