Edgar Allan Poe Casebook

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in Baltimore and likely to be recognized.

Although not in keeping with the political aspects of this theory, there is an earlier suggestion that Poe was physically abused in his final days: “At the instigation of a woman, who considered herself injured by him, he was cruelly beaten, blow upon blow, by a ruffian who knew of no better mode of avenging supposed injuries. It is well known that a brain fever followed. . . .” (Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, “Autobiographic Notes: Edgar Allan Poe,” Beadle’s Monthly, February 3, 1867, p. 154). It was in reply to Mr. Smith’s article that Dr. Snodgrass wrote his “The Facts of Poe’s Death and Burial” noted above.

The eminent Poe scholar Dr. Thomas Ollive Mabbott, quoting Robert D‘Unger, dismissed the cooping theory as “twaddle,” but neither offers any explanation. It does answer some of the stranger details and may yet be shown to have some merit. James A. Harrison seems to accept the cooping theory. Didier’s book The Poe Cult reprints his ...

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VII, January 27, 1872, p. 104). One wonders if Didier’s opinion was changed by convicing evidence or mere preference.

N. H. Morrison’s letter to J. H. Ingram, November 27, 1874, includes these comments “The story of Poe’s death has never been told. Nelson [Neilson] Poe has all the facts, but I am afraid may not be willing to tell them. I do not see why. The actual facts are less discreditable than the common reports published. Poe came to the city in the midst of an election, and that election was the cause of his death” (Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 49). Neilson, Poe’s cousin, spoke briefly at the dedication of Poe’s memorial grave in 1875, but made no statement concerning the ...

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