Museum News

Dear Friend of the Poe Museum,

This morning two busloads of students arrived at the Poe Museum. In addition to touring the museum’s exhibits, the groups participated in a scavenger hunt, watched a performance of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and took a walking tour of neighborhood Poe sites. These are just a few of the programming options we now offer teachers in order to address the ever changing needs of their students. When classes are unable to visit the museum, we bring activities to schools and libraries throughout the Mid-Atlantic region or hold video conferences with schools outside the region. As teachers’ needs evolve, the Poe Museum will continue to adapt and to find new ways to cultivate a lifelong love of reading in audiences of all ages. This is one reason the Poe Museum has continued to serve for the past ninety years, and this is how it will thrive for the next ninety.

With all the changes taking place in its exhibits and programming, now is a great time to be a part of the Poe Museum. Earlier this year, we hosted a major exhibit of dozens of Poe manuscripts and letters which boosted our summer admissions by 26%. In June, students from across the country travelled to Richmond for the Fifth Annual Edgar Allan Poe Young Writers’ Conference. In October, we placed a marker on the grave of Poe’s first and last fiancée Elmira Royster Shelton because the legend on her gravestone has completely worn away. Throughout the year, the museum’s renowned collection continued to grow with the major acquisitions of the first printing of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the only surviving manuscript for Poe’s poem “To Helen,” and several important books about Poe’s life and work from the collection of influential early twentieth century Poe scholar James Southall Wilson. In the year ahead, we look forward to hosting another Young Writers’ Conference as well as the first Positively Poe Conference, at which leading Poe scholars will explore Poe’s life affirming contributions to the arts and culture. We are already booking group tours for the spring semester and preparing for next year’s exhibits.

As the Poe Museum prepares for another exciting year, we continue to face challenges ranging from recent severe weather that caused the cancellation of several tours and off-site programs to the expenses associated with maintaining both our artifacts and the two-hundred sixty-year-old building that houses them. The Poe Museum has lasted ninety years because generations of donors have supported it along the way, and the museum will continue to promote Poe’s legacy for another ninety years with the help of you and future generations of members and donors. We are mindful that the City of Baltimore has closed the Poe House. As a private museum, we do not take our supporters for granted. If you have not made your annual donation to the Poe Museum this year, now is a perfect time to do so. You can donate right now by clicking this link. Your gift of $20, $50, $100, $500, or more can help us keep the Poe Museum’s programs available and affordable for audiences of all ages.

Evermore,

Harry Lee Poe
President

This is the last day of the Community Foundation’s Amazing Raise. You have until 6 P.M. today to help the Poe Museum win prizes in this exciting fundraising competition. Your donation of $50 could win us thousands in prizes.

Why support the Poe Museum? For over ninety years, the Poe Museum has been inspiring audiences of all ages to love reading. As Virginia’s only literary museum, the Poe Museum is an invaluable resource to both teachers and students. Your donation today helps the Poe Museum continue to provide services like guided tours, exhibits, off-site programs, a young writers’ conference, and more to a global audience.

Please consider making a contribution to the Poe Museum today using this form.

Do you love literature and want to instill a love of reading and writing in future generations? Here’s something you can do today to help the Poe Museum cultivate that love of the written word for years to come: From 6 A.M. on September 19 until 6 P.M. on September 20, the Poe Museum is participating in the Amazing Raise, a great fundraising opportunity and competition for non-profits in the Greater Richmond area. Each organization in the Amazing Raise competes to get the most donors to contribute to their organization during the 36-hour period. In addition to receiving these donations, each organization also competes for prizes offered by the Community Foundation of Greater Richmond. These prizes include bonuses for the highest number of donations, the organization with the first 50 unique donations, the organization which gets the donation closest to sunset, and the longest distance donation. The donation form is located below, and you can also find it on the Community Foundation’s website.

Why help the Poe Museum?
Especially in today’s very competitive academic and professional environments, excellent written and oral communication skills are a necessity, but many students have difficulty in these disciplines because they lack interest in reading comprehension and writing. Many teachers tell us they struggle to convince their students to read—until they study Poe. Very often, Poe’s works are the first that students actually enjoy reading. As such, his works provide the perfect opportunity for educators to inspire a life-long love of reading in their students. Regrettably, these same educators have little time to focus on researching any individual author while trying to cover as many writers as possible in an effort to meet the requirements of standardized tests. That is where the Poe Museum can help. By providing guided tours, teleconference programs, off-site educational programs, educator information packets, educator workshops, and a website full of accurate information on Poe’s life and work, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum has become an invaluable aid to both teachers and students. By offering a multidisciplinary approach to interpreting literature, the Poe Museum’s programs address the standards of learning in a number of different disciplines including English, History, Art, and Science. For these reasons, the Poe Museum has become a trusted resource for educators around the globe. Just last week, we hosted a guided tour for a German group and sent educator information packets to teachers in 21 different states as well as educators in the Dominican Republic and Canada. In the month ahead, we will host tours for thousands of students and travel to sites throughout Virginia and Maryland to conduct off-site programs.

As the Poe Museum enters its ninety-first year, it faces new challenges. With corporate and local government support on the decline, expenses are on the increase. Rather than pass those expenses on to the already cash-strapped schools, the Poe Museum is seeking the support of those who believe in the importance of the Poe Museum’s mission. We hope we can count on your support today. Even a small donation can make a big difference. For more information, you can view the Poe Museum’s profile here, or you can visit our website.

Dear Friends of Poe,

A couple weeks ago we convened the Poe Museum’s fifth Edgar Allan Poe Young Writers’ Conference. This year we hosted ten students from seven different states from Massachusetts to Arizona. Why did these talented high school students (pictured above) give up a week of their summer to come to the Poe Museum? They came for the same reason that hundreds of students on field trips leave the Poe Museum with books purchased from our gift shop. Teachers often tell us that Edgar Allan Poe is the first author who excites students about reading and writing. Among the students of yesterday who credited Poe with inspiring their careers are Jules Verne, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Perhaps one of the students at this summers’ conference, one of the students who visited the museum on a school field trip, or even one of the hundreds of thousands of students who visit our website each month will write the next great novel or screenplay. These students are one reason I support the Poe Museum.

We have seen our numbers grow significantly in the years I have served on the board of the Poe Museum. In 2001, our annual attendance was 11,000. For the past year our attendance had grown to 18,000. In 2001 we had 46 school groups visit the museum, but this past year we had 81 groups. Since 2009 when the National Endowment for the Arts made Poe the center of a national program to stimulate reading, the Poe Museum has brought visiting exhibits and programs to schools and libraries all over the southeast.

The Poe Museum is more successful than it has ever been, yet our need for individual financial support has never been greater. Five years ago we relied on a large group of donors who gave $50, $100, $200, and $500 each year. Since the beginning of the recession, our support has fallen significantly. We do not have a large endowment, nor do we rely on government support for our operations. We depend upon a balanced mix of support from admissions fees, shops sales, corporate support, individual support, grants, and modest local government support. We depend upon all of these, and when the money is not present, we can only cut our service and cut our staff.

As we begin a new fiscal year, please join me in making a gift to the Poe Museum that will help stimulate the educational motivation of the next generation at a time when our educational institutions are in crisis and need the auxiliary help of organizations like the Poe Museum. Your donation will also help us pay other expenses associated with preserving, exhibiting, and insuring the world’s finest collection of Poe artifacts and memorabilia (not to mention the upkeep of a 260-year-old building). As the Poe Museum celebrates its ninetieth anniversary this year, we look forward to laying the foundation for the next ninety years of inspiring young minds.

Thank you in advance for your generous support. If you have not visited the Poe Museum recently, we invite you to come this summer to see our incredible new temporary exhibit featuring dozens of rarely seen Poe letters and manuscripts from seven different private and public collections.

Evermore,
Harry Lee Poe
President

Today is February 29th, a leap day, which marks the bicentennial of the first leap-year Edgar Allan Poe ever experienced during his lifetime.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase “leap-year” has been used since 1387, and is probably of older formation than that. Thus, the phrase “leap-year” would have been around during Poe’s lifetime. Still, Poe might have been more likely to associate the word “leap” with a favorite childhood game of his, leap-frog.

As an energetic young child, Poe would often play leap-frog with the Mackenzies, the family that raised Poe’s sister Rosalie. However, these childhood experiences were not Poe’s only involvements with the game. In his adult life, while living in Fordham, New York, Poe played a game of leap-frog in the woods with friends and admirers. The game ended when he landed with such force that his shoes were torn.

Poe would later go on to write “Hop-Frog”, a horror story about a crippled dwarf court jester who exacts revenge upon the king he serves. “Hop-Frog”, the name of titular character in the story, is a term synonymous with “leap-frog”, the very game that Poe enjoyed at various points in his life.

above: illustration of “Hop-Frog”

Over the course of his forty years, Edgar Allan Poe lived through ten leap days. The last February 29th of his lifetime occurred in 1848, on which date he wrote two similar letters to George W. Eveleth and George E. Isbell. The George Eveleth letter is as follows:

My Dear Sir,

I mean to start for Richmond on the 10th March. Every thing has gone as I wished it, and my final success is certain, or I abandon all claims to the title of Vates. The only contretemps of any moment, lately, has been Willis’s somewhat premature announcement of my project: — but this will only force me into action a little sooner than I had proposed. Let me now answer the points of your last letter.

Colton acted pretty much as all mere men of the world act. I think very little the worse of him for his endeavor to succeed with you at my expense. I always liked him and I believe he liked me. His intellect was o. His “I understand the matter perfectly,” amuses me. Certainly, then, it was the only matter he dil understand. “The Rationale of Verse” will appear in “Graham” after all: — I will stop in Phil: to see the proofs. As for Godey, he is a good little man and means as well as he knows how. The editor of the “Weekly Universe” speaks kindly and I find no fault with his representing my habits as “shockingly irregular”. He could not have had the “personal acquaintance” with me of which he writes; but has fallen into a very natural error. The fact is thus: — My habits are rigorously abstemious and I omit nothing of the natural regimen requisite for health: — i.e — I rise early, eat moderately, drink nothing but water, and take abundant and regular exercise in the open air. But this is my private life — my studious and literary life — and of course escapes the eye of the world. The desire for society comes upon me only when I have become excited by drink. Then only I go — that is, at these times only I have been in the practice of going among my friends: who seldom, or in fact never, having seen me unless excited, take it for granted that I am always so. Those who really know me, know better. In the meantime I shall turn the general error to account. But enough of this: the causes which maddened-me to the drinking point are no more, and I am done drinking, forever. — I do not know the “editors & contributors” of the “Weekly Universe” and was not aware of the existence of such a paper. Who are they? or is it a secret? The “most distinguished of American scholars” is Prof. Chas. Anthon, author of the “Classical Dictionary”.

I presume you have seen some newspaper notices of my late lecture on [page 2:] the Universe. You could have gleaned, however, no idea of what the lecture was, from what the papers said it was. All praised it — as far as I have yet seen — and all absurdly misrepresented it. The only report of it which approaches the truth, is the one I enclose — from the “Express” — written by E. A. Hopkins — a gentleman of much scientific acquirement — son of Bishop Hopkins of Vermont — but he conveys only my general idea, and his digest is full of inaccuracies. I enclose also a slip from the “Courier & Enquirer”: — please return them. To eke out a chance of your understanding what I really dil say, I add a loose summary of my propositions & results:

The General Proposition is this: — Because Nothing was, therefore All Things are.

1 — An inspection of the universality of Gravitation — i.e, of the fact that each particle tends, not to any one common point, but to every other particle — suggests perfect totality, or absolute unity, as the source of the phaenomenon.

2 — Gravity is but the mode in which is manifested the tendency of all things to return into their original unity; is but the reaction of the first Divine Act.

3 — The law regulating the return — i.e, the law of Gravitation — is but a necessary result of the necessary & sole possible mode of equable irradiation of matter through space: — this equable irradiation is necessary as a basis for the Nebular Theory of Laplace.

4 — The Universe of Stars (contradistinguished from the Universe of Space) is limited.

5 — Mind is cognizant of Matter only through its two properties, attraction and repulsion: therefore Matter is only attraction & repulsion: a finally consolidated globe of globes, being but one particle, would be without attraction, i e, gravitation; the existence of such a globe presupposes the expulsion of the separative ether which we know to exist between the particles as at present diffused: — thus the final globe would be matter without attraction & repulsion: — but these are matter: — then the final globe would be matter without matter: — i,e, no matter at all: — it must disappear. Thus Unity is Nothingness.

6. Matter, springing from Unity, sprang from Nothingness: — i,e, was created.

7. All will return to Nothingness, in returning to Unity.

Read these items after the Report. As to the Lecture, I am very quiet about it — but, if you have ever dealt with such topics, you will recognize the novelty & moment of my views. What I have propounded will (in good time) revolutionize the world of Physical & Metaphysical Science. I say this calmly — but I say it.

I shall not go till I hear from you.

Truly Yours,
E A Poe

Compared to the George Isbell letter:

Dear Sir,

A press of business has hitherto prevented me from replying to your letter of the 10th.

“The Vestiges of Creation” I have not yet seen; and it is always unsafe and unwise to form opinions of books from reviews of them. The extracts of the work which have fallen in my way, abound in inaccuracies of fact: — still these may not materially affect the general argument. One thing is certain; that the objections of merely scientific men — men, I mean, who cultivate the physical sciences to the exclusion, in a greater or less degree, of the mathematics, of metaphysics and of logic — are generally invalid except in respect to scientific details. Of all persons in the world, they are at the same time the most bigoted and the least capable of using, generalizing, or deciding upon the facts which they bring to light in the course of their experiments. And these are the men who chiefly write the criticisms against all efforts at generalization — denouncing these efforts as “speculative” and “theoretical”.

The notice of my Lecture, which appeared in the “New-World”, was written by some one grossly incompetent to the task which he undertook. No idea of what I said can [page 2:] be gleaned from either that or any other of the newspaper notices — with the exception, perhaps, of the “Express” — where the critique was written by a gentleman of much scientific acquirement — Mr E. A. Hopkins, of Vermont. I enclose you his Report — which, however, is inaccurate in numerous particulars. He gives my general conception so, at least, as not to caricature it.

I have not yet published the “Lecture[”], but, when I do so, will have the pleasure of mailing you a copy. In the meantime, permit me to state, succinctly, my principal results.

GENERAL PROPOSITION. Because Nothing was, therefore All Things are.

1 — An inspection of the universality of Gravitation — of the fact that each particle tends not to any one common point — but to every other particle — suggests perfect totality, or absolute unity, as the source of the [p]haenomenon.

2. Gravity is but the mode in which is manifested the tendency of all things to return into their original unity.

3. I show that the law of the return — i.e the law of gravity — is but a necessary result of the necessary and sole possible mode of equable irradiation of matter through a limiter space.

4. Were the Universe of stars — (contradistinguished from the universe of space) unlimited, no worlds could exist.

5. I show that Unity is Nothingness.

6. All matter, springing from Unity, sprang from Nothingness. i e, was created.

7. All will return to Unity; i e — to Nothingness. I would be obliged to you if you would let me know how far these ideas are coincident with those of the “Vestiges”.

Very Respy Yr. Ob. st
Edgar A Poe

Happy leap-day everyone, and “hop” on over to the Poe Museum sometime soon, lest you share the fate of Hop-Frog’s King!

Poe (left) and Dickens (right)

Charles Dickens turned 200 today. Many readers know the novels of Dickens, but few may know that he and Poe were personally acquainted. Edgar Allan Poe was an admirer of Dickens’s works since “strongly recommending” Dickens’s works to American readers in a June 1836 review from the Southern Literary Messenger. In an 1839 issue of Burton’s Magazine, Poe wrote, “Charles Dickens is no ordinary man, and his writings must unquestionably live.”

Upon receiving Poe’s invitation to meet, Dickens wrote Poe:

United States Hotel, March 6, 1842.
My Dear Sir, — I shall be very glad to see you whenever you will do me the favor to call. I think I am more likely to be in the way between half-past eleven and twelve, than at any other time. I have glanced over the books you have been so kind as to send me, and more particularly at the papers to which you called my attention. I have the greater pleasure in expressing my desire to see you on this account. Apropos of the “construction” of “Caleb Williams,” do you know that Godwin wrote it backwards, — the last volume first, — and that when he had produced the hunting down of Caleb, and the catastrophe, he waited for months, casting about for a means of accounting for what he had done?
Faithfully yours always,
Charles Dickens.

After returning to London, Dickens wrote Poe:

London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent’s Park,
November 27, 1842.
Dear Sir, — by some strange accident (I presume it must have been through some mistake on the part of Mr. Putnam in the great quantity of business he had to arrange for me), I have never been able to find among my papers, since I came to England, the letter you wrote to me at New York. But I read it there, and think I am correct in believing that it charged me with no other mission than that which you had already entrusted to me by word of mouth. Believe me that it never, for a moment, escaped my recollection; and that I have done all in my power to bring it to a successful issue — I regret to say, in vain.
I should have forwarded you the accompanying letter from Mr. Moxon before now, but that I have delayed doing so in the hope that some other channel for the publication of our book on this side of the water would present itself to me. I am, however, unable to report any success. I have mentioned it to publishers with whom I have influence, but they have, one and all, declined the venture. And the only consolation I can give you is that I do not believe any collection of detached pieces by an unknown writer, even though he were an Englishman, would be at all likely to find a publisher in this metropolis just now.
Do not for a moment suppose that I have ever thought of you but with a pleasant recollection; and that I am not at all times prepared to forward your views in this country, if I can.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens.

Almost four years later, Dickens wrote Poe:

1 Devonshire Terrace, London. Nineteenth March 1846.
Dear Sir,
Although I have not received your volume, I avail myself of a leisure moment to thank you for the gift of it.
In reference to your proposal as regards the Daily News, I beg to assure you that I am not in any way connected with the Editorship or current Management of that Paper. I have an interest in it, and write such papers for it as I attach my name to. This is the whole amount of my connection with the Journal.
Any such proposition as yours, therefore, must be addressed to the Editor. I do not know, for certain, how that gentleman might regard it; but I should say that he probably has as many corespondents in America and elsewhere, as the Paper can afford space to.
I am Dear Sir
Faithfully Yours
Charles Dickens
Edgar A. Poe Esquire

Reports of the Poe Museum’s demise have been vastly exaggerated.

On Sunday morning, viewers of CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood were shocked to hear the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia is closing its doors. No one was more surprised than we at the Poe Museum. Not only are we not closing, but we are preparing to celebrate our ninetieth anniversary with a full schedule of exhibits and events. Since Sunday morning’s broadcast, the Poe Museum has been inundated with calls and emails from concerned citizens from across the country, but we assured them, and will continue to assure them, that the Poe Museum in Richmond is doing fine and has not lost its funding. We appreciate all the concern expressed by our friends, and we hope you will continue to support the Poe Museum.

If you have never been to the Poe Museum, or if you have not visited in a while, October is the perfect time to pay us a visit to see our new exhibits, “The Raven, Terror & Death” and “Death and Mourning in the Age of Poe.” We will also have a book launch for the new anthology Richmond Macabre on October 2, our annual commemoration of the anniversary of Poe’s death on October 6 (Yes, we celebrate his birthday as well as his death day.), our Halloween Unhappy Hour on October 27, and Poe’s Pumpkin Patch on October 29. In the new year, we will celebrate Poe’s birthday with a Poe-rade through Poe’s Richmond and the opening of a new exhibit of the 43 illustrations to “The Raven” done by James Carling in 1883 and not publicly exhibited in over 35 years. In April, we will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Poe Museum with a new exhibit of rarely seen or recently discovered Poe manuscripts and letters.

Below is a list of some of next year’s Unhappy Hours and exhibits. You can expect to see even more of the kind of events only the Poe Museum can bring you.

Saturday, January 14th – Poe’s Birthday Bash – Noon to midnight!

Saturday, January 14th- Exhibit Opening: “James Carling’s Illustrations for ‘The Raven’” (continues until May 30) in Exhibit Building

Thursday, April 26th – 90th Anniversary of Poe Museum opening (1920s garden party) – Unhappy Hour – 6-9pm

Thursday, April 26th –Exhibit Opening: “In Poe’s Hand: Letters and Manuscripts” (continues until July 11) in Memorial Building

Thursday, May 24th – Unhappy Hour “The Enchanted Garden” – 6-9pm

Thursday, June 28th – Unhappy Hour “The Gold Bug” (pirates!) – 6-9pm

Thursday, July 26th – Unhappy Hour “The Oval Portrait” (Poe Carnival) – 6-9pm

Thursday, July 26th –Exhibit Opening: “New Acquisitions of Poe Portraiture” (Until September 30) in Exhibit Building 2nd Floor

Thursday, August 23rd – Unhappy Hour “The Premature Burial” – 6-9pm
Thursday, Sept. 27th – Unhappy Hour “The Masque of the Red Death” (Poe variety show) – 6-9pm

Sunday, October 7th – Poe’s Death Day Celebration – Noon-6pm

Thursday, October 25th – Unhappy Hour “The Black Cat”—6-9pm

Sunday, October 28th – Poe’s Pumpkin Patch – Noon to 5pm

Friday, December 7th – Poe Illumination – 6-9pm

In what may possibly be a Poe Museum first, we received a letter addressed to “The Raven” in care of the museum.

The envelope - click for a larger version

Needless to say, the staff was intrigued and we passed the letter along to the Raven.

The Raven was so pleased by the letter, that he asked me to share it on the museum blog. (Ravens lack opposable thumbs, which makes blogging difficult for them.)

So here is the letter:

The letter - click for a larger version

The Raven composed a reply and had me put it in the mail this morning. We hope that Mr. Martell will enjoy the letter.

The Raven has also graciously consented to allowing his reply to be published on this blog, so here it is:

The Raven's Reply - click for larger version

A little bird told us this might be the start of a trend…

Here are some more new theories, submitted to our website, about the cause of Poe’s mysterious death. Study the evidence and submit your own theory at http://www.poemuseum.org/students-mystery.php

Snow Heart
Age 16
Blacklick, Oh
I feel Poe, even though we all can tell that he had many things wrong with him that could have resulted in his death, I feel that he planned it so that we could not figure out his death, although all clues seem to point to him overdosing until his death, suicide seems to be what he would do, although it is in my opinion that his death was his last great work, creating the ultimate mystery and horror through himself. He seems to have taken the steps necessary to hide how he died, whether or not he wanted this mystery to be solved is another mystery all it’s own but I feel he caused his own death through liquor, and a series of health problems that he was aware he had to leave behind a legacy to us who love his great works.

Robert
Age 14
Wedowee, Alabama
I think he had a disease but noboby knew that he had one and finally he died

Kurtis
Age 13
Battle Creek, Michigan
i killed edgar allan poe

Nayelli
Age 13
Ontario,California
Edgar was already a strange man. He could have gone crazy because of hereditary reasons and who knows what could have happened. All of these theories could possibly be true, but we will never know.

Jr.
Age 12
Ontario, California
I beleive that the reason of Poe’s death was simply the irregular heart beat, and the brain tumor that should have been treated.

Anonomoous
Age 95
Memphis , Tennesee
Poe could have died of any cause of Death, but I would think it to be Murder.

Jael
Age 13
Coral Springs, Florida
I have observed that when Edgar was hospitalized 5 O’clock in the afternoon to 3 am the next day he was drunk and ill and started hallucinating and talking to thing that weren’t there he got angry at one of the nurses and started acting rough with her and for her self defense she started hitting Edgar causing brain trauma and followed by a heavy fever and estimating died 2 hours later.

Erica
Age 16
San Marcos, California
I feel that Poe’s alcoholism and possibly a mixture of drugs as well is what made him delirious, and he’d had taken him since he was such a melancholic person. Maybe a suicide? Asking God for forgiveness when he said “Lord, help my poor soul” minutes before he died.

Jack
Age 14
Ball, Louisiana
my theory of Edgar Allan Poe’s death is that he died of either a heart attack or he killed himself because he got drunk;)

Shayonne
Age 14
Alexandria, Louisiana
mr poe mustve was real sick that no one knew about and the doctor mustve gave him a due date that he suppose to die.

Brooke
Age 13
Blanchester, Ohio
I think that Edgar was a very intelligent man. I think maybe, being an orphan at such a young age, and him hopping from city to city, took a toll on him & He began to drink. After his first wife died, he started drinking more and more. He got in ill health because of this. I also think he was on drugs from his insane stories. So maybe he just ended his own life because he knew it was going to end soon.

Jonathan
Age 14
Calgary, Alberta
brain tumor

Anna
Age 14
Sacramento, California
Maybe all his poems and stories were true, about him self or someone else and when that other person saw what he was doing they started poisoning Poe. But if there wasn’t another person then maybe they were about himself and having people know about his actions but not no the reality of them drove him insane and Reynolds that he had said before he died could have been one of his victims or the one person that knew his poems were true.

Cadedra
Age 16
Killeen, Texas
i believe that poe was still alive; only that he went into hiding. maybe it was to hide from his fears or maybe it was the fact that his pain made him so insane he jus disappeared. only thing i know is that he was a great author and i really appreciated him a lot ……

Carolina
Age 18
Rosario, Argentina
in my opinion, it could be caused by several reasons. health problems and why not? that idiot politicians could drugged him and kick him because of the election time. he never killed himself. he was with elmira again. so, it’s imposible.

Face
Age 13
Boston, Massachusetts
aliens came and took poe away before he could do anything and they made him watch reruns of ugly betty which then killed him

Papadopoulou
Age 20
Thessaloniki, Greece
Edgar Allan Poe had suffered so much while he was alive and in such a short time that he probably had problems with alcohol. He had already been addicted to gambling before so why not drinking as well? He was found in a delirium and in somebody else’s clothes. He was drunk and lost his clothes in gambling.

Demetria
Age 13
Scottsville, Kentucky
my theory is that poe could have went out in the woods and been bitten by an animal and got rabies.

Isabella
Age 13
Anchorage, Alaska
They said they found him in a bar. They say that he had to be carried out. I suppose that the people in the bar were drunk so they could have seen the real reason he died. Could he have been poisoned by his friend? They felt that it was wrong and showed the most evil side of people. I believe that he was murdered for that reason possibly.

Alylah
Age 13
Virginia Beach , Virginia
I think Poe died because he drank too much and got alcohol poisoning. When the people found him he was already dead and they couldn’t revive him. Even if they had found him earlier I don’t think they would have been advanced enough medically to treat his poisoning sufficiently.

T-Erica
Age 13
Lancaster, California
Poe died of a pre-existing disease, probably a brain tumor, which grew over time slowly killing him. He said himself in a letter to Maria Clemm that he had not been drinking around the time of his death. Also he left his clothes and correct walking stick at home which is why we was found looking “worse for wear”. He was around the bar because he was giving lectures like he had been doing prior to his leaving Richmond. His close personal friend and nurse said that he had some type of lesion to the brain.

As we approach the 161st anniversary of Poe’s death, the exact cause of his early demise remains a mystery. Here are some of the theories about Poe’s death that visitors to our website have posted recently. Review the evidence and share with us your own theory at http://www.poemuseum.org/students-mystery.php

Andrew
Marco Island, FL
Poe possibly could have died of A. seizures, B. Heart attack, or C. Brain tumor

Timothy
Toledo, OH
I believe that he was not drugged. Nor do I believe he was beaten to death. I believe that he was murdered not by a human being, but by his very own self. I believe that his tumor of the brain had finally ended his existence and put an end to his suffering. He most likely was not beaten or drugged.

Dylan
Jacksonville, AL
He had epilepsy when he got rabies. He had been robbed of his clothes, but for someone to do that they had to knock him out with a weapon. God put him out of his misery when he prayed to him.

Kirsten
Brentwood, CA
I believe he committed suicide. He said he no longer had the wanting to live. He could have taken a drug overdose, because he was already sensitive to alcohol and drugs. He was delirious because he was either drunk or had taken an overdose.

Pierce
Westfield, MA
He was a random person who was picked to be a dummy to vote. He was drugged, and he was left to die on the street.

Dontayveon
Toledo, OH
I think he was murdered by his cousin.

Nicole
Woodbury, TN
He died from too much alcohol drinking and his possible brain tumor. I also believe that Mr. Poe was the best horror writer to have ever lived!!

DeLonna
Toledo, OH
I think Poe died of hypoglycemia because it s possible since he had diabetes.

Dakota
Toldeo, OH
He had a pet raccoon named Chronic the Hedgehog. Then Chronic got in a fight with a zebra-cow-pig-tiger-elephant, and then Chronic got back from the fight because he had won the fight and ate them all, so since Poe was hungry he thought the raccoon was fat and juicy, so he ate Chronic and died of rabies and high sugar rate due to his diabetes.

Nieko
Toledo, OH
I think he got jumped by people because they knew he was kinda rich and wanted his money.

Darquell
Toledo, OH
I think that his step mom killed him for his money and that was all she wanted.

Mary
Toledo, OH
My theory is that someone tricked him into drinking alcohol, but Edgar took under a difficult circumstance of everything around it sounds as if what he wrote was his on life but a dreadful fantasy

Victor
Westfield, MA
He died from a brain tumor.

Kat
Naples FL
I believe that Poe died from mania a potu, and over the years people told different stories about his death. No one knows what really happened so everything that people say is partly true.

Danni
Chester VA
My theory is he died of alcoholism.

Becky
Fairfield,OH
Edgar Allan Poe was so drunk he passed out.

Julia
McLeansville, NC
He was depressed and went suicidal.

Steven
Lexington MA
Cancer

Elijah
Jacksonville, AL
He died of a heart attack

Ashley
Toledo, OH
He got hungry, ate a slice of pie and it had a lot of sugar, and he had a diabetes attack. The end.