“Quoth the Raven, Nevermore...” This line, written by Edgar Allan Poe in his poem “The Raven”, is one of the most famous lines he or anyone else has ever written. When one hears the name Poe, they often think of death, destruction, decay, and murder. However, as with all people, there is more to him than meets the eye, just as there is more to a movie than the trailer. And, like an unreleased movie, Poe remains shrouded in in the great mystery of his life and death.

 Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts (Poe; Poetry). His parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, both died before Poe was three, and he was taken in by John Allan of Richmond, Virginia, and his wife, Frances (Poe; Edgar; Poetry; Tonkin). Allan wished for Poe to become a tobacco merchant like himself; however, Poe wished to become a poet like his childhood hero Lord Byron (Poe). This is believed to have caused a division between Poe and Allan that never fully healed. After attending Richmond's best schools, Poe was accepted into the University of Virginia at Charlottesville (Poe; Poetry). He excelled in his classes there, but in the process, he had incurred considerable amounts of debt due to Allan’s lack of support (Poe; Poetry). By the end of his first term, Poe was forced to burn his furniture so he could remain warm (Poe). He was forced to return to Richmond as a result of this debt, where he found that his fiancée, Elmira Royster, had left him for another man (Poe). These misfortunes can be labeled as the underlying cause of Poe’s life long struggles.

These events and other rifts caused the final destruction of relations between Allan and Poe (Poe). Poe, having left the Allan mansion for the last time, decided to seek a life of adventure (Poe). He achieved this by enlisting in the United States Army (Poe; Edgar; Poetry). After attaining the rank of regimental sergeant major, Poe was honorably discharged and was admitted into the United States Military Academy at West Point. While Poe excelled academically, Allan refused to give him the necessary funds to maintain himself as a cadet, nor the consent required to resign. He therefore was forced to gain a disciplinary dismissal by violating regulations and ignoring his duties (Poe; Poetry).

He then went to live in Baltimore with his aunt and new mother figure, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia (Poe). Poe and Virginia quickly became lovers even though a 13 year age difference existed.   He continued to write and submit poetry and obtained connections by winning a short story contest sponsored by the Saturday Visiter magazine. It was through these connections he secured an editorial position with the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia. Poe’s job at the magazine included writing short stories and literary critiques (Poe; Poetry). His scathing style won him fame and made the Messenger the most popular magazine in the South within a year, but also bought him many enemies within the northern literary establishment. Writer Rufus Griswold was one of these new enemies. Griswold never lost his hatred for Poe, which could have helped trigger Poe’s downfall, knowing Griswold’s connections in the world (Poe).

This newfound good fortune allowed Poe to bring Maria and Virginia to Richmond and Poe and Virginia were quickly married. After a successful stint with the Messenger, Poe moved around from magazine to magazine in search of better pay, and more control over what he could write (Poe). During this time period he also tried to start his own journal but could not find enough funding. Poe published “The Raven” in January 1845 which alleviated his financial troubles. He used his new found fortune to buy the Broadway Journal and was finally able to live his dream of running his own magazine. Sadly, the venture failed shortly thereafter. This, along with Virginia's poor health and rumors of an affair with a married woman, forced Poe and his family to retreat to the countryside (Poe). A year later in 1847, Virginia died of tuberculosis. She was twenty four. Poe was devastated, as their relationship, despite the age difference, was very close and full of joy (Poe; Tonkin). He did not return to writing for several months. Virginia's death is believed to have started a death spiral that killed Poe two years later under mysterious circumstances (Poe; Hopkins; Tonkin).

Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland (Poe; Edgar; Poetry; Hopkins). He was found four days before his death in a semi-conscious state, and he was taken to the hospital where doctors could not ascertain the cause of his condition (Poe; Hopkins). He was forty years old. There are multiple theories as to the cause of his death. It was known that Poe had taken up drinking after the death of his wife and he was found in a bar the day before he died. However, his medical records show no clear evidence of a terminal illness caused by alcohol abuse (Hopkins; Tonkin). Another theory is that Poe was “cooped”. “Cooping” was a tactic used by political gangs to help their candidate win. It involved kidnapping a person of the street, taking them to a room called a coop, and then forcing them to ingest large amounts of hard liquor and other drugs. The person, then in a delusional state, would be sent to vote in multiple polls for the gang’s candidate. The Baltimore newspaper The Republican and Argus stated that these gangs were operating in the ward where Poe was discovered. The bar where he was found had also been used as a polling place.  There are also multiple possible medical conditions that could have caused Poe’s symptoms. A trained nurse that helped Poe care for his ill wife stated that Poe had brain lesions and brain fever. This claim was seconded by the renowned Dr. Valentine Mott of New York in 1847. Poe was also diagnosed with heart disease in 1848, but continued to live in denial of his condition (Hopkins). It is possible that Poe had rabies, according to Dr. R. Michael Benitez, citing that Poe’s symptoms matched with the disease’s progression. However, other medical evidence suggested otherwise (Hopkins). In 2006, pieces of Poe’s hair, cut just after death, were sent to be analyzed via cooled plasma spectrometry. The results showed that he had high concentrations of arsenic, lead, mercury, nickel, vanadium, and uranium.  Although these metals were present in enough quantities to cause sickening, none of them could have killed him outright (Hopkins). Bio-historian Arno Karlen believed that it was a rare disease that killed Poe, namely Alcohol Dehydrogenase Deficiency Syndrome or ADDS. This is considered one of the most likely medical theories as ADDS is a hereditary disease and Poe’s father died under similar circumstances. The symptoms of this disease also match Poe’s so-called death spiral very closely (Poe; Poetry; Hopkins). There are conspiracy theories about Poe’s death, namely revenge by a loving relative or suiter of one of Poe’s supposed mistresses. However, revenge in 1800’s America generally meant either a dual (Poe was challenged multiple times this way, which he refused) or being shot or stabbed in the dead of night. Considering that Poe had no open wounds; it is hard to find any evidence that he was killed out of spite or anger (Hopkins). As odd as Poe’s death was, it was not out of place at the time as dying for no obvious reason was fairly common in the 1840s. Humanity will probably never know exactly what happened, that said, researchers will continue to search for any record that could shed light on that day in October, 1849.

Most people believe that they know the style of Edgar Allan Poe’s works. They believe that Poe is synonymous with death, destruction, and murder. While one can’t talk about Poe with mentioning this, there is much more to him than the darker items of human nature. Poe also wrote book reviews, which however scornful, were not overly dark (Poe; Poetry). His short stories and poems, however were dark. One major theme in his writing is that some dreams never come true, which is exhibited in “Eldorado”:

And, as his strength   

  Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow—   

  ‘Shadow,’ said he,   

  ‘Where can it be—

This land of Eldorado?’ (Poetry)

In this particular poem, Eldorado is an allusion to this theme. This is possibly caused by the fact that Poe always dreamed of becoming a magazine owner, but his ventures always failed. Another theme is the loss of a loved one, such as in “Annabel Lee”. The loss in “Annabel Lee” is likely referring to Virginia, while in other earlier poems; he is referring to his mother (Tonkin). There are also multiple patterns in Poe’s writing, such as his regular use of first person narration. Poe uses this to help probe the character's psyche (Poetry). In poems such as “To Helen”, “Lenore”, and “The Raven”, he writes about the loss of beauty and difficulty in regaining it. Poe also did not use any one style of format for his poems, preferring to use many different types of formats of poetry (Poetry). The supposed darkness that surrounds Poe is attributed to author Rufus Griswold. He was one of Poe’s greatest archrivals due to Poe repeatedly attacking Griswold’s writings. To exact revenge, Griswold wrote a slanderous biography about Poe in the days after his death. This biography attributed the faults of Poe’s characters to Poe himself. Because of this, information about Poe has been clouded, therefore placing hardship upon Poe’s modern day biographers as they are forced to sift through fake sources created by Griswolds lies (Poe; Poetry).    

In conclusion, the life and death of Edgar Allan Poe is a mystery even today. His poetry was some of the most popular of his time, and his poetry remains famous even after nearly 170 years in which the world has changed much. The mystery of his death may never be solved due to the lack of confirming evidence. The same can also be said for the mysteries of his life. The one known thing is that Poe will never be forgotten both for his life, and his poetry.