On This Day In History: Famous American Author Edgar Allan Poe Found Dying – On Oct 3, 1849

On October 3, 1849, famous American author Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious in Baltimore under mysterious circumstances.

It was the last time Edgar was seen in public before his death.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic, best known for his poetry and short stories of mystery and macabre. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.

He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Poe was born in Boston, the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia, who never formally adopted the boy. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. Due to his problems regarding the funds for his education, Poe enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name but later failed as an officer cadet at West Point and declared his wish to be a poet and writer.

In Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem “The Raven” to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced.

Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, at age 40; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

The mystery of his death still remains.