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Belinda Pearce
Sergeant
Username: Belinda
Post Number: 38
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 5:35 am: | 
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What really happened in those "missing days" |
Helge Samuelsen
Detective Sergeant
Username: Helge
Post Number: 59
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 4:02 pm: |
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Tragically it would seem Poe had been shanghaied and plied with drink for a forced vote fraud gang in the local Baltimore election.
Or perhaps he was just on a personal drinking spree.
Sincerely Helge
Fascinating! (Mr Spock raises an eyebrow)
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Christopher T George
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 1522
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 8:58 pm: |
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Hello Helge and Belinda
I live in Baltimore and you can take it from me that what Helge states, "Tragically it would seem Poe had been shanghaied and plied with drink for a forced vote fraud gang in the local Baltimore election" is sheer speculation and may be myth.
There was an election taking place on October 3, 1849, the day that Poe was found on the sidewalk outside 44 East Lombard Street, Ryan's Tavern, where the Fourth Ward Poll was located, but that may have been coincidence. Poe he had been missing since September 28 so the election does not exactly explain his disappearance while on a journey from Richmond to New York, only passing through Baltimore. See the timeline below.
Poe's relatives in Baltimore appear to have believed the second explanation that you give, that Edgar fell off the wagon and went on a drinking spree. That might not though explain how he got separated from his trunk and was wearing cheap clothes that were not his own when he was found. It could be that at least he might have been mugged and robbed while drunk.
All my best
Chris
Sept. 28, 1849 - Poe arrives in Baltimore from Richmond, possibly on the steamship Pocahontas.
Sept. - By one tradition, Poe is said to have attended a birthday party for a friend. In a minor violation of his non-drinking pledge, he may have participated in a toast to the hostess. (Mabbott, Poems, p. 568)
Oct. 3 - Poe is found by Joseph W. Walker and taken into Cornelius Ryan's "4th Ward Polls," a tavern at Gunner's Hall, 44 East Lombard Street, awaiting the arrival of his friend Dr. Joseph Evans Snodgrass. Finding Poe nearly unconscious in the tavern, Snodgrass and Poe's uncle, Henry Herring, presume that he is drunk and send him in a carriage to Washington College Hospital (now Church Hospital), where his care is supervised by Dr. John J. Moran. (Gunners Hall stood on the north side of Lombard, between High and Exeter, a few doors east of High. This area is considerably changed since Poe's day and the building no longer exists.)
Oct. 4 - Poe's Baltimore cousin, Neilson Poe, calls at the hospital to see Poe, but is told that the patient is too excitable for visitors.
Oct. 5 - Neilson Poe hears that Edgar is "much better" and sends him a change of linen.
Oct. 7 - At about 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, Poe dies. According to John J. Moran, Poe's body is moved to the Rotunda of Washington College Hospital, where it is "visited by some of the first individuals of the city, many of them anxious to have a lock of his hair" (Moran to Maria Clemm, Nov. 15, 1849, reprinted in Quinn and Hart, Letters and Documents, pp. 31-34). According to Ella Warden, however, the viewing of Poe's remains occurred in the home of her mother, Mary Estelle Warden, Poe's cousin.
Oct. 8 or 9 - At about 4:30 p.m., Poe is buried in his grandfather's lot in the Westminster Burying Ground. (Oct. 8 is generally the preferred date.) A mahogany coffin is provided by Poe's Uncle, Henry Herring, a lumber dealer. (Dr. Moran's claims that he himself bought Poe's coffin are without foundation. Another story that Poe's coffin was oak is also unsubstantiated.) The hack and hearse are arranged and paid for by Edgar's cousin, Neilson Poe. The ceremony is officiated by Poe's relative, the Reverend William T. D. Clemm. The weather is said to have been cold and gray, with a touch of rain. The few who accompany Poe's body to its place of rest include Henry Herring, Neilson Poe, Dr. J. E. Snodgrass and Z. Collins Lee. (Lee had been a classmate of Edgar's at the University of Virginia and remained a life-long friend.)
From "Poe in Baltimore" maintained by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.
(Message edited by ChrisG on June 04, 2005)
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
See "Jack--The Musical" by Chris George & Erik Sitbon
The Drama of Jack the Ripper Weekend
Charlotte, NC, September 16-18, 2005
http://www.actorssceneunseen.com/ripper.asp
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Chief Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 678
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 10:26 pm: |
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Hi Chris,
May I recommend to you John Evangelist Walsh's, MIDNIGHT DREARY: THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF EDGAR ALLAN POE (New York, St. Martin's Press - St.Martin's Minotaur, c. 2000). Walsh is a literary scholar/detective, and has written several books on Poe (one on the writing and rewriting of THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET), as well as books on the last days of John Keats, on Robert Frost, and one on Charles Dawson's guilt in the Piltdown Hoax. Walsh connects what happened to Poe with a physical attack on him by the brothers of a female friend of his from Richmond, whom he was planning to marry.
I may add that a few years back it was suggested that Poe died from the bite of a rabid dog. There are many possible solutions for this mystery.
About fifteen years back, a series of novels were written in which Poe is supposed to have faked his demise to evade a set of enemies, and resurfaces to use his detective skills to solve several cases (including the Mayerling "suicide" pact of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria Hungary and Countess Marie Vetsera.
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Helge Samuelsen
Detective Sergeant
Username: Helge
Post Number: 62
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2005 - 6:23 am: |
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Everyone,
Yes, I know I sounded too much like the shanghai theory was a proven fact. But it has been held for the most probable theory by many scholars.
Here is some other facts and speculations on the subject.
http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm
Oh yes, I forgot, the theory I talked about is the "cooping" theory.
Sincerely Helge
(Message edited by helge on June 05, 2005)
Fascinating! (Mr Spock raises an eyebrow)
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Christopher T George
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 1524
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2005 - 10:33 am: |
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Hi Jeff
Thanks for that recommendation. I believe I had a crack at John Evangelist Walsh's MIDNIGHT DREARY but I think gave up part way, if it is the same title I started. In any case the book I am thinking of was one of those that had me shaking my head at some of the author's beliefs. I will look for John Evangelist Walsh again.
Chris
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
See "Jack--The Musical" by Chris George & Erik Sitbon
The Drama of Jack the Ripper Weekend
Charlotte, NC, September 16-18, 2005
http://www.actorssceneunseen.com/ripper.asp
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Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 649
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 10:11 pm: |
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J.B and C.G. and all...
Shame Poe didn't stay in my neighborhood [ his Morning on the Wissahiccon, which is where I live, the name being changed to Wissahickon in NW Philly ] and not travel down to Baltimore. Think of all the work he could have done ! What a tragedy.........
HowBrown
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Chief Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 721
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 8:15 pm: |
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Hi Howard,
It was a great waste of talent, whatever caused his demise. He would have normally have had thirty more years of productive life ahead of him.
Of course, would he have supported the South in the Civil War? He was raised in Virginia - and he had some experience at West Point. Interesting to think of that.
Jeff |
Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 655
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 7:36 pm: |
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J.B.
Sor, Poe may have made an excellent soldier,except they would have needed a ladder to get his little self on a horse. He would have been a 52 year old man in 1861 to boot.
But you are correct...thirty years more of his writing lost to an an early death was a loss indeed..
HowBrown
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4620
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 5:29 pm: |
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If Poe had lived longer, we'd have had more writing.
But there is a second loss from his early death - if he'd lived longer, we'd have had more Roger Corman films!
Robert (Vincent Price fan) |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Chief Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 726
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 7:46 pm: |
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Hi Robert,
And just imagine, he might have lived long enough to meet his replacement writer, Ambrose Bierce
Jeff (a Devil's Dictionary Devotee) |
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