Nobody knew. It was brain fever, or alcoholism or exposure. Just before his death, he vanished for more than five days. Then he turned up, drunk and delirious, in a Baltimore bar. While writing two books about Poe, the mystery kept haunting author John Evangelist Walsh. Poe was just 40 as he arrived in Richmond and a widower for more than two years when he visited the home of Elmira Shelton, a woman he had once hoped to marry before her parents broke up the engagement.
There are several theories about the death of Edgar Allan Poe, but in this book the author postulates that he died as a result of a beating from the brothers or their agents of a childhood sweetheart Poe had recently resumed a romantic relationship with.
Walsh postulates that Poe's fears of being followed and in danger in the days leading up to were not delusions brought on by illness, but based on actual occurrences--that Poe might have been paranoid, but peopl I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Walsh postulates that Poe's fears of being followed and in danger in the days leading up to were not delusions brought on by illness, but based on actual occurrences--that Poe might have been paranoid, but people were out to get him.
A fascinating read for any literature buff or Edgar Allan Poe fan. View 2 comments. Jul 24, Jeffrey Bloomfield rated it really liked it. John Evangelist Walsh died only a few years back, which saddens me because of his specialty among writers of history.
He loved to study writers and public figures and how small events or large ones could effect them. I first came across him when attending Drew University in the early s, reading his interesting book about Poe and the writing of the sec0nd of his three "C. This appears to be the first time a fictional story of a John Evangelist Walsh died only a few years back, which saddens me because of his specialty among writers of history.
This appears to be the first time a fictional story of a murder was based on an actual murder that of the unfortunate "Seegar girl" "cigar" was spelled "seegar" back in Mary Cecilia Rogers of New York City. Ms Rogers body was found in the Hudson River, a number of days after she was last reported being seen, and despite intense police investigation the case was never really solved. Without getting further involved in the complications of that case I recommend Raymond Paul's study of it, if you wish to look closely into it , Walsh did a comparative textual approach to the story - which as it stand is somewhat confusing for one of Poe's neat mystery tales - and showed that the original magazine publication of the tale was different from the one we have today ever since "Marie Roget" was published as part of Poe's collected stories.
The reason was that in new evidence suggesting poor Mary died as the result of a botched abortion appeared, and Poe determined to keep his ace detective Dupin on top of all possibilities, gave him additional comments to make about alternative theories to what he already suggested. The result is confusing to most modern readers, and led that doyen of American criminal historians, Edmund Pearson, to say the story was pretty boring.
But Walsh's approach wasn't, and was well worth reading. It would be a few years before I came across any other book of Walsh's.
I subsequently found he wrote on other poets, including a moving book on the last year in the life of John Keats, and a book about Robert Frost. He also wrote about a murder in Springfield, Illinois in , of a neighbor of Abe and Mary Lincoln, and how Abe got involved in the legal ramifications of that case one not as well known as Lincoln's involvement in the trial of Duff Green's sons for murder in the s, that has that classic story of how Lincoln demolished a prosecution key witness using an almanack to show that there was no moon on the night of the murder - when the witness supposedly saw the killing clearly by moonlight.
But it was natural for Walsh to return repeatedly to Poe. Probably no other major American man of letters is as mysterious or odd as our Edgar. Walsh wrote a second book concerning Poe's relationship with Fanny Osgood, a poet in her own right, and how it was at the basis of Poe's rivalry with and future character assassination by Rufus Griswold, who also liked Fanny. The present book was written in my copy is a paperback with the cover you see in the above illustration of the book, dated , and deals with the final weeks of Poe's life.
As such, Walsh goes as far as he can with the meager information we have and it is pitifully small. I recommend reading this, as it is a thought provoking book, but I here give a qualification: There are so many alternative theories to the cause of Poe's demise in Baltimore in October that Walsh's ideas while intriguing are no better nor worse than any other. Basically you have to keep in mind that in Poe was a widow, as his beloved "Lenore", his cousin wife Virginia, had died in Poe was still living exclusively by his poetry and stories and criticism of plays, books, poetry being published, along with his lecture tours.
It was a small income, but still Poe had managed to demonstrate such talent, especially after he published "The Raven" that he was among the best known writers of the day in the U. As early as he was sought out by one of his few peers from abroad, Charles Dickens then on HIS first tour of the U.
But in Poe was tired of his hard grind life, with his need to support his mother-in-law and himself on his earnings. He had a vision for nearly a decade - having worked for many magazines like "Graham's" that he felt did not encourage good writing as much as they should - to create one the would own and edit called "The Stylist". But this required money - and Poe couldn't raise it.
Then according to Walsh he reopened an old romance with a woman from Richmond, Virginia, whom had married well, and was now a widow. If they married, Poe would have the cash for the "Stylist" and finally get financial stability. Anyway that was the idea. Walsh concludes that his demise in Baltimore had to do with this scheme, and several people who did not want it to be completed by a new marriage.
I leave it to the reader to go into the idea - again a worthy theory, but probably no less or more worthy than the one that he was gotten drunk by a gang needing "repeater voters" there was an election in Baltimore at the time of his death , or a recent idea that he was bitten by a dog with rabies - again an interesting idea.
Certainly worth reading. And it opens up the issue of Poe's death so that the reader can check out other books touching upon that subject. Apr 21, Diane Heath rated it it was ok Shelves: biography , mystery. This is more speculation on why and how Poe died in Baltimore in October Was he kidnapped and forced to vote in the city wide election held at the time of his arrival? Was he followed by his future wife's brothers and threatened if not beaten? Did he go on a bender?
This in spite of recently joining the Sons of Temperance? It is up to the reader to decide how accurate this author is on his theory. There were some interesting theories of Poe's death, but it was a little repetitive and dull at times.
Jan 21, Bill Tress rated it liked it Shelves: biography. Poe has always interested me and the more I find out about him the more I am intrigued. Yet, he provides more structure and scrutiny of the life of Edgar Allan Poe, to my great delight. The mystery of family gene pools providing good and bad traits are evident in Poe. His parents were talented actors who passed on traits that gave Poe his literary talents and intellect.
They also bequeathe Poe has always interested me and the more I find out about him the more I am intrigued. They also bequeathed him emotional weakness and a proclivity to drink to excess. A little-known fact provided by Walsh was the fact that when he applied himself, Poe excelled in academics and athletics, yet in all cases his emotional weakness won out.
In , Poe was found on a street in Baltimore in a state of delirium, dressed as a vagrant battered and suspected of drunkenness, within a week he was dead. In he was on top of his game, writing, editing magazines, lecturing, and engaged to be married; so how do we explain his abrupt death? The Police officials and medical people were quick to declare that he died of congestion of the brain, whatever that means, and his susceptibility to drink and drunkenness made it easy to dismiss the death, so the feeling was bury him and be done with it!
Even his biographers have been quick to accept the official version of his death. Walsh makes an exhaustive review of the facts and draws different conclusions. An election was going on at the time and a characteristic of Baltimore elections was people multi voted. A victim was kidnaped, beaten, and sometimes drugged and even compelled to ingest alcohol then forced to vote multiple times. Walsh takes the reader to Richmond, where Poe once lived. Poe was there giving lectures on poetry and reading some of his own poetry.
He encountered Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton, Elmira was once an adolescent sweetheart of Poe, but her father had intervened and ended the relationship. The father felt that Elmira was too young, he also knew of Poe and felt Elmira could do better. Again, family intervened because they did not want her to marry Poe. Walsh thoroughly researched his subject, yet his conclusion can only be conjecture that the brothers left Poe on a Baltimore street in a state that would suggest drunkenness.
Walsh makes a particularly good case and maybe in a court of law his circumstantial evidence would prevail. There are some holes in his belief, yet I think his reasoning is sound and I accept this conclusion as more realistic than the accepted cooping theory.
He excelled at track and field as well as boxing while in College and this was a surprise to me. These facts gave me pause when considering that a beating by the brothers killed him. He would have given a good account of himself and surely the police and medical staff would have seen signs of quite a struggle.
Another new fact, that I found interesting was while in the army he rose very rapidly to the rank of Sargent. Also, it is not easy to get into West Point, yet he did and was excelling until he got court marshalled on purpose and thrown out! On thing that I continually looked for in this book and never found was mention of the Civil War. Richmond was almost the epicenter of this war, and Walsh takes us back to Richmond in , Elmira lived there until her death so she must have experienced the war and all the carnage related to the destruction of Richmond.
I know I am asking too much of Walsh to wish he had mentioned how she survived in Richmond during those trying times. This was a short little diversion centered on an interesting and accomplished American Poet and Walsh did a nice job researching and making a strong case for his conclusions.
I enjoyed this book ISBN Publication history at the Edgar Allan Poe Society. Poe the Detective book. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. The author takes us through the steps, miss-steps and redirects during Poe's literary journey in his attempt to solve the mystery of the disappearance. The author takes us through the steps, miss-steps and redirects during Poe's literary journey in his attempt to solve the mystery of the disappearance and murder of Marie Roget as first published contemporaneously and serially in Snowden's "Ladies Companion".
All Rights Reserved. Template By John Evangelist Walsh. Miles Fowler Nov 23, - AM This book has two parts Part one is an analysis of a little known story by Edgar Allen Poe, 1CThe Mystery of Marie Roget 1D Part two is Poe 19s story itself Poe, as the author argues in part one, invented the modern detective story because, while other writers had included detectives in their fiction, Poe was first to write stories that focused primarily on the detection of a crime with a detective as the main character He created a detective named C Auguste Dupin who appears in three stories, 1 [ Jennifer Nov 23, - AM In July of , an attractive young cigar girl named Mary Rogers left the company of her fiance on Nassau Street in New York City to see a relative, one Mrs Downing Mary never arrived at Ms Downing s residence, and her corpse was found by a group of sailors near Sybil s Cave a popular tourist destination of the time in Hoboken, NJ on 28 July The coroner s report found Miss Rogers had been throttled to death by a gang of 2 3 men prior to being tossed into the waters of the Hudson Her wrists had [ Hal Johnson Nov 23, - AM The self righteous, condescending, long winded, overcautious Mystery of Marie Roget is Poe at his worst This book, about the real murder and its sensational coverage, is better It s thorough, and it does a good job explaining why Poe s story is as bad as it is but ultimately the curious circumstances are not that curious, so as a result Mary Rogers nonmurder is not much interesting that Dupin being smug and wrong is.
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