As the rivalry continues to heat up between Philadelphia and Baltimore over who has the stronger claim to 19th-century novelist Edgar Allan Poe (see here, here, and here), Massachusetts author Matthew Pearl, whose latest book, The Poe Shadow, explores the “puzzling circumstances” of that poet and short-story writer’s death in October 1849, reveals to the New York Observer that “he has unearthed new information” suggesting that Poe “may have died of a brain tumor,” rather than heavy drink or rabies, both of which experts have blamed in the past.
You’ll find the full Observer article here.
(Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.)
READ MORE: “Nevermore: The Mystery Surrounding the Death of Edgar Allan Poe,” by Matthew Jones (The Retriever, University of Maryland).
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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2 comments:
With all due respect, Poe truely belongs to Virginia! After all, it was here that he was born and here that his melancholy personality was formed. He attended the University of Virginia. His first job was with the Southern Literary Messenger, in Richmond Virginia. Many of his first poems were likely written there. And of course, the Poe Museum is in Richmond.
It's true, Philadelphia and Baltimore do have some tenuous claim to Poe, just as a mistress has some claim to her married lover. But in the end, the married man usually goes back to his wife, and Poe fans will always return to Virginia.
Thanks to the Poe Museum, for providing much of this information. You can check out the museum here: http://www.poemuseum.org
Pat,
Poe once wrote, "I am a Virginian-- at least I call myself that." Interesting that he felt he had to "qualify" the statement.
That Poe was raised in Richmond (except, remember, for the FIVE YEARS he spent in England) did lead him to believe himself some kind of Virginia gentleman. But of course, he was only an adopted Virginian, having been born in Boston and then travelled all over the East Coast with his actress mother. And I'm sure Poe's disastrous relationship with his adoptive Virginian father left him with a good bit of unease about his sometime childhood state. Virginia was lucky to have Poe begin his career there, but he did not (nor ever could) achieve greatness there. He had to reach Philadelphia for that.
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