Edgar Allan Poe's Alcoholic

The location of Poe’s death was on the outside of a saloon near a barrelhouse. He was found in soiled clothes that did not belong to him and seemed to be unaware of where he was. Apparently flooded with drink, he may also have been ill from exposer. Poe was more than likely ill because he was drunk and

Edgar Allan Poe struggled with drug addiction, and through his experience, he has been able to present his struggles in complicated narratives carefully. Alcohol plays a central role in Edgar Allen Poe stories including The Masque of the Red Death, Hop-Frog, and The Cask of Amontillado. The unique writing styles presented in these stories develop from Poe's notorious alcoholism combined with his dysfunctional and usually unsupportive family. Even at childhood, alcohol was prevalent in the family and was given the role of waiter during family parties where he refilled other guest wine glasses. When he became an adult, Poe would go on week-long sprees and became so addicted to the point that a little amount of alcohol would incapacitate him.

One reason that suggest that Poe died of alcoholism is that he was well known to have a history of drinking. First when Edgar was in the hospital and his uncle, Henry Herring, came in after he found out about his condition he refused to care for Poe. As Kenneth Silverman writes, “But he refused now to take over his car, saying that on former occasions, when drunk, Poe had been abusive and ungrateful.”(185). Henry Herring described Poe as abusive and ungrateful when drunk indicating that Poe had been drinking on previous occasions for him to know this. An additional person who was a close friend to Poe was the medical professional, Dr. Snodgrass believed that Poe died from an overdose of alcohol. Another thing that supports that Edgar Allan Poe had a history with drinking is the fact that when he would write letters to his wife and mother-in-law he would say things that he was recovering and promised to reform. As Pollin and Benedetto writes, “Evidence of Poe’s chronic binges is strewn through his letters, in periodic admissions

Many people believe Poe died of rabbies however, there is more then enough evidence that supports he died of alcohol. In "Poe's Final Days"the author says '' Many others who had known Poe, includuing the professsionally trained Dr. Snodgrass, also attributed his death to lethal amounts of alcohol." (Silverman 186). I believe this quote means that even his family knows he had gained his drinking problem back. If he did possibly get his drinking problem back then possibly he could not stop himself from drinking a lot at once. "Poe was found outside a Baltimore saloon in an alcohlic stupor on October 3, 1849, and died four days

Even though Poe was completely addicted to alcohol, many times, he tried very hard to fight against his alcoholism. Right after his first long drinking experience, during college, he tried to stay away from it (Black, Jamee A. 3). His drinking times were intermittent and he stayed abstain from alcohol for months in some of those periods (Poe, Drugs and Alcohol 8). Promises were made and repeatedly times he said that would never drink again. As one side of Poe tells him that he should stop with alcohol, the other side tells that he should drink to relief his emotional pains and usually he followed this last side once is a lot easier to deal with it (Black, Jamee A. 6). In 1847, Poe’s get extremely hard into drinking, one of the worse times during his whole life, after the death of his young wife Virginia (Hennelly, Mark M. 1). After this event he could stop drinking alcohol anymore (Poe, Drugs and Alcohol 14).

Poe was taken from a tavern to the hospital days before death. He was seen in a drunken stupor, but some say this is not true. Others say that he was taken from a tavern but not drunk, rather sick from the elements. Another is he was found drunk on stairs. That theory is very unlikely for what every other source says.

Poe was found semi- conscious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland. He was rarely responsive and had slurred speech

He consistently wrote poems about extreme intoxication and depression. It is very common for someone to be so down that they purposely drink themselves to death. “The Black Cat” by EAP is a short story by Poe that was made four years before he passed away. The years close to Poe’s death he started to get back to his alcoholism and depression stage in his life. Poe’s real life actions showed up quite a bit in his works including this one. In this short story Poe describes a man and wife who own a cat by the name of Pluto. This character Poe made I believe is him so the actions that happened next shows his insane alcoholism at it’s worst. One night this man comes home from his night on the town extremely intoxicated. As he walked in he reached for the cat and Pluto bit a slight wound on his hand. “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer”, showing he had no control over his actions. We can’t automatically turn to euphemisms when dealing with death. Poe was an amazing poet, yet the best of us still fall into a state that we can’t bring ourselves out of.The hardship he went through was a great inspiration for how Poe wrote great literature. In “To My Mother”,”Annabel Lee”, and “The Black Cat” we got a look into Poe’s life and into his mind. If we are not going to listen to multiple theories, lets atleast listen to the source of this

According to the CDC, over 88,000 people die every year due to the excessive use of alcohol in the United States. Now this proves that alcoholism is a very serious and common issue in our country. Poe’s death to this day has been thought of as a great mystery, most believing he died from either alcohol or rabies. According to several sources saying that Poe was sent to the hospital after being to drunk, not being able to tell doctors the names of his family members/where he lived, and the fact that his cat, Caterina, was proven to not have rabies, I believe he died from alcohol.

Many researchers also believe that the clump found where Poe’s brain should be is a petrified piece of his brain or a rock. Although Poe had a drinking problem, he did not die from alcoholism. One

I don’t think alcoholism was the cause of Poe’s death. “The writer was so sensitive to alcohol that a glass of wine would make him violently ill for days.” (NY Times. Poe’s Death Rewritten as a Case of Rabies) This is exactly what happened. Infact, alcohol made him so ill he died from it; except this overdose on alcohol was from cooping. I also don’t think exposure caused his death, even though on article wrote that there were “winds and soaking rains” the previous day. (Silverman, Poe’s Final Days) I don’t feel that ad weather the day before could affect him that drastically, regardless of what he was wearing. As I said earlier, I don’t believe his location and outfit at the time were a coincidence. Cooping is the most reasonable

Dying is said to be peaceful, a way to infinite happiness. This serene state, however, is only felt by the person dying. For most others, family members, close friends, coworkers, etc., death is a dark mystery. This mystery of death was intensified when the famous author, Edgar Allan Poe, died in 1849. For hundreds of years, Poe enthusiasts and hungry detectives have searched for a reason that can explain why Poe died after being found barely conscious outside a tavern in Baltimore.

Poe was a literally a genius who lived a poor life until his unexpected death, there are many theories and ideas about Edgar Allan Poe but my discovery for Poe’s death is far more than a theory, but one thing we know for sure that everybody figured out is on October 7th, 1849 at the age of 40 Poe died in Baltimore; now since we discovered his biography it’s time to discover the whole truth, the cause of Poe’s death is unknown.

They are many stories about Poe’s death. There are many theories about Poe death . People will never know what happen to him. Some say he died of from drugs. , but But the world may never know.

Poe married his cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836,she was only 13, then in 1837 they went to New York there he published the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym his only novel. In the summer of 1846 he moved with his wife to a cottage in what was a rural area in Bronx N.Y; she died there of tuberculosis in January of 1947.On October 3, 1949, in Baltimore a stranger found him delirious and in need of medical attention, a few days later he died at the age of 40 from unknown causes.