Poe's Mysterious Death in Baltimore
Poe was only passing through Baltimore at the time of his death in 1849. But he had, in fact, spent many happy years here more than a decade earlier. Though he was born in Boston and raised in Richmond, Va., Poe was kin to a well-established family in Baltimore. He had lived in Baltimore with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter, Virginia, whom he secretly married in 1835 when she was just 13.Virginia’s long illness and premature death at age 25 served as the inspiration for many of Poe’s tragic poems. During his time in Baltimore, Poe turned from poetry to prose, and so began on the road to his creation of the literary horror genre.
Poe’s death is an enduring mystery with many theories but little evidence pointing to what really happened. In late September 1849, he was on his way from Richmond to New York when he made what was to be a brief stop in Baltimore. He visited friends and attended a party.
Not much else is known of his visit until October 4, 1849, when Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore, in clothes other than his own, delirious and "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance, " according to a witness. He was brought to Church Hospital on the corner of Broadway and Fairmount Avenue. He died four days later.
One of his attending doctors, an advocate of temperance, publicly attributed his death to alcohol, though Poe had stopped drinking months before. Other possible factors that have been put forth through the years include cholera, rabies, heart disease, seizure and suicide.
One of the most interesting theories, though by no means the most likely, is that he was kidnapped and forced to vote repeatedly by a political gang. Beatings and forced alcohol could have caused his weak heart to give out. The day he was found ill happened to be election day, and this kind of kidnapping was not unknown at the time in the Baltimore.
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