What killed Edgar Allan Poe?

An interesting article/theory here from author Matthew Pearl, who wrote the popular Dante Club, (I haven't read it, but my friend Rita says it's quite good), and more recently, The Poe Shadow (haven't read that either). In a nutshell, Pearl raises the possibility (not entirely original to him), that a brain tumor was responsible. Now for some totally cool and totally gross quotations from the heart (brain?) of the article:

"...the articles confirmed that Mr. Poe’s body had been exhumed, 26 years after his death, so that his coffin could be moved to a more prominent place at the front of the cemetery.

More to the point, a few of the articles suggested that the great man’s brain had been visible to onlookers during the procedure.

The first of these was an undated letter to the editor of The Baltimore Gazette, which claimed that 'a medical gentleman' had seen 'that the brain of the poet Poe, on the opening of his grave … was in an almost perfect state of preservation,' and that 'the cerebral mass, as seen through the base of the skull, evidenced no signs of disintegration or decay, though, of course, it is somewhat diminished in size.'

The second was an 1878 article in the St. Louis Republican, noting that 'the sexton who attended to the removal of the poet’s body' had lifted the head during the exhumation and reported seeing the brain '[rattling] around inside just like a lump of mud.' The sexton reportedly thought that 'the brain had dried and hardened in the skull.'

'What I realized was, if that was the case, it would be the only physical evidence we have of what Poe’s condition was at his time of death,' Mr. Pearl said.

Intrigued, Mr. Pearl asked a coroner for an expert opinion. 'I read her the description,' Mr. Pearl said, 'and she said, "Well, that person is just wrong. Unless you embalm the body, the brain is the first thing to liquefy. There’s no way it would still be there 25 years later."'"

The Poe Museum in Richmond (my old home--at least for one year) has a pretty interesting exhibit about what might have killed Poe in their "Death Room." Yes--it's totally cheesy and creepy at the same time--a rare feat for a museum.

Most people who study Poe or have an interest in this issue seem to agree that we'll never have a definitive answer, but that we'll still keep asking the questions. Why? Well, I think it has something to do with our endless fascination for the man himself, something I wrote about in this earlier post.