The Edgar Allan Poe House – Baltimore, MD

Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe, an American writer, lived between 1809 and 1849. He is the father of modern detective fiction as well as Gothic fiction. Many people often have a romanticized version of literature from the 1800s, often believing that all of it is full of women in ballgowns and men in tuxedos, courting one another and running through fields of flowers. Poe must have felt that such images were quite boring, because his works feature some of the most grotesque and gruesome imagery the world has ever known.

Unfamiliar with Poe’s gory imagery? Here are some of the most iconic.

A pendulum that slowly lowers from the ceiling threatening to cut a victim in half. A resentful guy who entombs his best friend alive in a wine cellar. A man who cuts his cat’s eye out and hangs it in his basement. Side note: I’m not sure why that last story is a “must read” in ninth grade in a lot of secondary schools. It made nearly every one of my students cry and scream when I taught it a few years back. How very awkward.

Even Poe’s more touching works, such as Annabel Lee, center around a fascination and reflection of death. A general sense of macabre is present in just about all of his pieces, most that I’ve read anyway.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m not a Poe scholar; I certainly was even less of one before I visited the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. However, I was eager to learn about the man. And trust me when I say, there are few people more fascinating to learn about.

The Home.

The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum is very tiny and the building itself is modest. It blends in with the other identical brick effaced homes surrounding it. A cheery and enthusiastic guide meets guests outside the cottage and explains the rules of the museum, especially the ones regarding COVID. After that, patrons are free to enter the tiny cottage.

The front room houses the small gift shop (more on that later). Beyond that is an unadorned kitchen with a fireplace and a mantle. Here, visitors can see advertisements for the events (now virtual) that the museum and Poe society host, including contests. Following the kitchen, there are three floors of very small bedrooms.

Fans of Poe’s genre of writing style will delight in the minuscule winding staircases, creaking floors, shadows which seem to dance on the walls, and dim lighting. As I carefully wandered about, I wondered how much of the aforementioned elements of the home inspired Poe’s ghastly style of writing.

The house isn’t very furnished, but much of what does still exist, by way of furnishings both interior and exterior, are original to the time that Poe stayed there (1830s). Guests can see a few exhibits, including a telescope and a writing desk (a portable one!) which were thought to be used by Poe. When the home was active, he lived there with two cousins, his aunt, and grandmother; you can see some of their kitchenware still on display.

Exploring the home and reading all of the placards about the author gave me a new sense of appreciation for him. He certainly lived what many would consider to be a tumultuous life at times.

Poe was orphaned at three years old when his parents (both actors) died, and he was separated from his siblings when he was sent off to live in a foster family.

Poe is the author’s biological family’s last name, while Allan is the family surname of his foster parents.

Poe’s foster parents tried to raise him to be business minded, wanting him to go into the tobacco business just as his foster father did. But being a fan of Lord Byron, he really wanted to be a poet. He went to university (which the Allans did not pay for) and the high cost of tuition left him in so much poverty that he had to burn furniture some nights to keep warm. With no financial help from the Allans, his only choice was to leave. He returned to live with the Allans, but couldn’t put his simmering resentment of them leaving him penniless and ashamed while he was in college behind him.

Needless to say, he left and pursued military ambitions at West Point. The military academy eventually kicked him, and afterwards he tried to find comfort and help in the arms of more distant family in Baltimore. Poe was robbed by a cousin upon his arrival, but taken into the home of an aunt named Maria Clemms. That home is the one which this piece is about. During his time in Baltimore, he lived very much in poverty. The home definitely gives one the sense of how that felt.

Poe’s life seemed to be a series of yearnings for love, any kind of love, whether it be familial or romantic, and that yearning never coming to fruition.

Mysterious Circumstances Surrounding His Death.

It always amazes me how many great authors seemed to perish in a way that fits their writing styles and greatest works. Edgar Allan Poe was no exception. The brilliant ringmaster of the museum kept us captivated in her re-telling of the three major theories surrounding Poe’s mysterious death.

We know for sure that Poe was passing through his hometown of Baltimore on a business trip or venture. He went missing for a few days, as in his whereabouts are completely unknown in that short time period. When he was finally found, he was wearing a stranger’s clothes and speaking in a nonsensical manner. He continued speaking in a way that was incoherent until he finally perished at the hospital. To this day we do not have a solid cause of his death. But the details of his final hours are certainly fitting for the master of mystery and horror. Here are the top three theories:

Theory #1: Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a tricky term. In the minds of many, an image of a person shaking until their next fix, and hovering outside of a local liquor store anxiously awaiting its opening fill the mind. We assume that an alcoholic is someone who drinks constantly and is unable to maintain relationships or a steady job. However, most experts agree on quite another definition. Experts believe that alcoholism has more to do with behavior and ability to limit oneself. For example, apparently the person who drinks only once a year on his or her birthday and always manages to get into trouble (i.e. a fight) on that one night a year is an alcoholic.

Poe was not an alcoholic in the sense that most people imagine, but he did have a drinking problem. He did not consume regularly, but when he did indulge in imbibements, he often lost control of his behavior and went overboard with how much he consumed. Theory one is that he went on a complete bender in the time that he went missing and suffered from “delirium,” either from the heavy intoxication or the come down from a severe withdrawal.

Theory #2: Rabies

While he lay dying in the hospital, Poe would go through alternate waves of being comatose and then suddenly growing belligerent in behavior, sweating a lot, and suffering from hallucinations and delusions – all of which are “tell tale” signs of rabies. Most assuring in this theory, Poe’s physician reports that he refused to drink water when they offered it to him in the hospital. Hydrophobia, or fear of water, is a common symptom in rabies sufferers, because of the pain associated with swallowing. While this theory is plausible to folks like researcher Dr. R Michael Benitez, many in the Edgar Allan Poe Society are skeptical. Apparently his attending physician went on tour shortly after Poe’s death and changed his story about Poe’s untimely end several times throughout. Is it because he suddenly remembered new information, or himself had a case of “big fish” syndrome? We will never know for sure.

Theory #3: Cooping

Fair warning, the word “cooping” is severely uncomfortable. But, we still have to take a look at this theory – it has merit.

Way back before photo IDs and well, even ANY ID, when you went to cast a ballot in the US on election day, your name was good enough! In order to gain more votes for a particular candidate, political teams would engage in a form of “electoral fraud” called ‘cooping.’

Victims (typically unwillingly) would be forced to vote at least twice for a particular candidate in the following way.

An unsuspecting victim would be kidnapped, shoved in a room, and plied with a ton of alcohol and opium. The victim would be coerced into voting for the candidate of the kidnappers choosing. THEN, the kidnappers would drag the victim back to the room, give him new clothes, ply him with more booze and opium and make him vote for the same candidate again. The poll workers would believe the victim to be a new face in the voting line, and allow him to cast another ballot.

This theory is plausible to many because Poe was wearing a stranger’s clothing and not his own. He may have been given a ton of alcohol and drugs which caused his psychiatric and physical symptoms. Many times, mafia members were the proponents of cooping. He may have been too scared or truly too inebriated to give the names of his captors.

Many readers might have a more sinister and macabre solution. Why not just dig him up and conduct a biophysical analysis? Once Poe’s body is above the ground, there are many cities who will lay their claim to his fame and will try to snatch and re-bury him there. Baltimore is more than happy to keep Poe underground specifically for that reason.

Ghastly Gifts

Are you a fan of the macabre? Or just a fan of the creator of horror himself? You’ll want to check out the small gift shop on your way out. It has tons of books, shirts, and posters dedicated to Poe. If you’re looking for a more unique treasure, you can get a copy of The Raven or Annabelle Lee folded inside of an envelope and written in Poe’s handwriting. Not ghoulish enough? Grab a commemorative Poe funeral handkerchief and prayer card.