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Edgar Allan Poe's Biography

-part II-

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Poe was described about this time as being "graceful, and with dark, curling hair and magnificent eyes, wearing a Byron collar and looking every inch a poet." The earliest known portrait of him dates from his early days on the Messenger and shows him with sideburns and a slightly sardonic cast of countenance for so young a man. Even at this date he was evidently somewhat fragile and delicate. His complexion which later became quite sallow is described as having been olive. 

Of his private affairs the most important event of the Richmond epoch was his second marriage to his cousin Virginia. The reasons for this appear to be sufficiently obvious. The first marriage in Baltimore had been clandestine with Mrs. Clemm as the only witness. It had been opposed by influential relatives and had never been made public. All explanations were obviated by a second marriage in public, nothing was said about the first affair, and on May 16, 1830, a marriage bond was signed in the Hustings Court of the City of Richmond which described Virginia Clemm as twenty-one years old. She was, as a matter of fact, less than fourteen years of age at the time, and appeared to be a child. The wedding took place in a boarding house kept by a Mrs. Yarrington, in the company of friends, a Presbyterian divine by the name of Amasa Converse officiating. After a simple ceremony the couple left for their honeymoon which was spent at Petersburg, Virginia, at the house of a Mr. Hiram Haines, editor of the local paper. Poe was back in Richmond before the end of May, 1836, at his desk on the Messenger. Mr. White had promised him an increase of salary later on. 

After his marriage, indeed for some time before, the poet's correspondence with relatives and friends shows that he was desirous of setting up housekeeping. The plan followed was to solicit funds for Mrs. Clemm and Virginia in order to establish a boarding house. Although some small aid, "loans," were obtained, the scheme fell through, and the little family moved to a cheap tenement on Seventh Street, where they seem to have remained until the end of their stay in Richmond. 

Poe continued his editorial work and from his observation, experience, and ambition began to evolve in his mind a scheme of which the beginnings can be traced back to Baltimore. It was his hope to establish and to be the editor of a great national literary magazine. That Poe was one of the first men in America to understand the possibilities of modern journalism from a magazine standpoint there can be no doubt. From then on until the end of his story it was the darling scheme of his life. Misfortune and his own personality, rather than the theories of journalism which he entertained, were responsible for his failure to realize his ambition. 

He now began to think of going North to establish the new publication, a move which his growing reputation and the constantly increasing friction with his editor-in-chief served to hasten. Poe was brilliant but unsuited to work in a subordinate capacity. Mr. White in all justice must be said to have been patient. He was, however, patronized upon occasions by his versatile young editor, and there are also indications that in the fall of 1836 Poe had once more fallen from grace, and in spite of his well-meant promises to White, was again resorting from time to time to the bottle. In addition to this he seems to have been restless. Taking advantage of contacts which he had made by correspondence in New York with such men as Professor Charles Anthon, John K. Paulding, the Harper Brothers, and others, he decided to remove to that city. 

Consequently in January, 1837, he wound up his affairs with the Southern Literary Messenger and Mr. White, and taking his family with him left for New York, They appear to have arrived there some time about the end of February, 1837, and to have taken lodgings at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Waverly Place, sharing a floor with one William Gowans, a bookseller, who was of considerable service to Poe. 

Before leaving Richmond, in the summer of 1836, Poe had made some attempt to have the stories comprising the "Tales of the Folio Club" published in volume form. The manuscripts had been left originally with Carey and Lea I in Philadelphia who kept them for some time under consideration but had finally returned them, minus one story, to the author in February, 1836. Poe then mailed to J. K. Paulding in New York who submitted them to Harpers. The result was another refusal. Paulding had written to Poe, however, when he returned the stories, suggesting a long title in two volumes, a very popular format. Out of this suggestion had grown a long story of adventure, shipwreck, and horrible suffering in the then unknown southern hemisphere. It was called "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" and was finally accepted by Harpers, who published it in 1838 in the United States. Wiley and Putnam produced an edition in England where it was later pirated. This was Poe's first book of prose although his fourth bound volume, three volumes of poetry having preceded it. The story appeared serially in the Southern Literary Messenger even after Poe had severed his editorial connection. It purported to be written by Arthur Gordon Pym himself and the real author was mentioned only in the preface. The type of adventure story which "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" closely followed was popular at the time. Poe merely allowed his imagination to deal with familiar material found in such books as "The Mutiny of the Bounty", "Morell's Narrative of Four Voyages to the Pacific", and the like. His immediate interest in the Antarctic seems to have arisen from the preparation then being made by one J. N . Reynolds for a government expedition to those parts. Nathaniel Hawthorne was also interested in the same scheme, which, however, came to nothing. The success of the book was small and brought the author very little fame and less cash. 

A short while after arriving in New York, Poe, Virginia and Mrs. Clemm moved to a small house at 13 ½ Carmine Street, where Mrs. Clemm took boarders in order to make a living. Poe was receiving near nothing at all. It was a period of financial panic and literary work was almost impossible to obtain. The Poes were accompanied to their new domicile by the bookseller Gowans who seems to have introduced the poet to a number of literary people but with small result. The poverty of the family was now extreme. Despite this, nevertheless, Poe continued to write. The chief items which can be traced to this first rather brief sojourn in New York are a review of Arbia Petraea in the New York Review, edited by Dr. Hawks, "Siope—a Fable," published in the Baltimore Book in 1839, and a tale called "Von Jung, the Mystic," which appeared in the American Monthly Magazine for June, 1837. 

The plans for starting a magazine of his own would at that time, owing to the financial depression, have met no response. Poe, indeed, was unable to obtain even a minor editorial position or sufficient hack work to enable him to exist. His doings at this time must forever remain somewhat obscure. Probably through Gowans he was thrown into contact with James Pedder, an Englishman of almost neglible literary ability but a kindly man. Pedder about this time was engaged in establishing for himself magazine connections in Philadelphia, where his sisters resided. Through him it seems quite likely that Poe was induced to leave New York and to move to Philadelphia, then the great publishing center of the United States. At any rate we find him in Philadelphia about the end of August, 1838, boarding together with his family and James Pedder at a lodging house kept by the sisters of the Englishman on Twelfth Street, a little above Mulberry (Arch). Poe was soon definitely engaged upon two literary projects, the editing of a text book on Conchology and the now long deferred publication of his collected tales. 

Shortly after the arrival in Philadelphia Poe moved nearer the downtown publishing and engraving shops to a house at Fourth and Arch (then Mulberry) where he continued to reside until September 4, 1838. He was now engaged in editing The Conchologists First Book, or a System of Testaceous Malaciology, a school text to which he lent his name. It was purely a piece of hack work and has nothing to do with the creative or artistic writings of Poe. Among collectors the volume is now much sought after. At least nine editions are known to exist, the first was published in April, 1837, by Haswell, Barrington and Haswell. Poe wrote the preface and the introduction, and was assisted in his arrangement of the text and illustrations by a Mr. Isaac Lee and Professor Thomas Wyatt. Bergman, De Blainville, and Parkinson are quoted, and Cuvier heavily drawn upon. The beautifully engraved plates of shells were pirated from The Conchologists Text Book, a work by an Englishman, Captain Thomas Brown, to whom no credit was given. Poe was afterwards attacked for this and accused of plagiarism. The truth is that the custom of pirating material for school texts was then almost universal and very little blaim can be laid upon Poe. He received $50 for the use of his name as editor. In the series of Poe's bound works this was the fifth. 

This school text was merely a financial transaction. Poe now turned his attention to publishing his short stories. Arrangement was made to bring out his collected tales under the title of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in two thin volumes. They were published in December, 1839, by Lea and Blanchard of Philadelphia, The title page bore the date 1840. The author received no royalty for his work but only a few copies to distribute to his friends. The publisher assumed the risk, not a very good one, for the volumes sold very slowly. There were fourteen stories in the first volume and ten in the second, which total comprised all the tales published up to that time by the author and "Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling," not appearing till later. This was Poe's sixth venture with a bound work, none of, which had been to any extent successful from financial standpoint. 

In the meantime Poe had secured a position with William E. Burton, the publisher of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. Mr. Burton was an Englishman, an actor at his best in broad farce, a theatre manager, and a journalist. To this magazine Poe contributed book reviews, articles on sport, at least five notable tales and a few poems, "To lanthe in Heaven" being the most notable of the latter. It was in Burton's that "The Fall of the House of Usher," "William Wilson," and "Morella" appeared. At the same time Poe was in correspondence with several literary figures among whom Washington Irving was the most prominent. 

Poe's connection with Burton did not last long. There was considerable friction between the two. At one time Poe withdrew but was prevailed on to return. His salary was small, his work uncongenial, and somewhat spasmodic. He was again in ill health whether due in part to the use of stimulants is not certain. At any rate he and Mr. Burton could not agree. The latter sold his magazine to George Rex Graham in October, 1840, and Poe was retained by the new editor, one of the most able journalists of the time. Owing to ill health Poe did not assume his duties on the new magazine, Graham's, until January, 1841, when traces of his pen are plainly evident on its pages. 

He was then living in a little brick house at the junction of Coates Street and Fairmont Drive, Philadelphia, where he had moved, probably in the fall of 1839. It was from this dwelling that he issued in the fall of 1840 his "Prospectus of the Penn Magazine, a Monthly Literary journal to be edited and published in the city of Philadelphia by Edgar A. Poe." In this prospectus Poe's theories of a magazine are made quite clear. He hoped to receive enough subscriptions to provide funds to launch the undertaking. A considerable number of persons subscribed but the affairs of the prospective editor were in such a condition that he was forced to abandon his plan in order to take a salaried position with Mr. Graham. The Penn Magazine was consequently deferred while Poe took a desk with Mr. Graham at $800 a year. 

The success of Graham's Magazine was phenomenal. The subscriptions rose from 5000 to 40,000 in about eighteen months, the increase being due to Poe's able editing, to the number of articles and poems secured by his soliciting notable writers to contribute, and to the policy of Mr. Graham who was lavish in his illustrations and very generous in his fees to authors. 

The period of Poe's association with Mr. Graham which lasted from January, 1841, to April, 1842, was the most financially easy period in his life. His earnings were small, but sufficient to keep him and his family in some comfort. It was at this time that he developed the tale of ratiocination and published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and other stories of crime and its detection. He became also interested in cryptograms and their solution, and in 1842 published in the Dollar Newspaper for June 20th of that year his story of "The Gold Bug" in which the solution of a cipher is a component of the plot. For this story he received a prise of $100. Some of Poe's most reputed work appeared in Graham's and attracted considerable attention. He now began to become widely known as an able editor, a brilliant and severe of thrilling tales, and a poet. His connection with Graham, however, was of short duration. He was impatient of his subordinate position at a small salary, hopeful of starting his own magazine, and also given to drink. In April, 1842, his "irregularities" caused Mr. Graham to employ Rufus Wilmot Griswold, the most noted American anthologist of his time, and a very able editor, in place of Poe. Finding Griswold in his chair one day, Poe left the offices of the magazine and never returned although he continued to contribute to it from time to time. 

He soon set up as a free-lance, wrote where and when he could, attempted to obtain a government position in the Customs House at Philadelphia through friends in Washington, and again tried to launch his own magazine now projected as The Stylus. He was almost successful, but a visit to Washington in March, 1843, when he became unfortunately intoxicated and exhibited his weakness even at the White House, blasted his fondest hopes. Even his, best friend, F. W. Thomas, a minor novelist and politician of the time, could do no more for him. Misfortune from now on dogged his steps. 

His wife Virginia was dying of tuberculosis and had frequent hemorrhages. He himself began to resort to drink more than before. There is also some evidence of the use of opium. He was sent to Saratoga Springs to recuperate and returned to Philadelphia where he nearly died of heart failure. At this time, 1844, the Poes were living at 234 (now 530) North Seventh Street, Philadelphia, in a house still standing. Here, although visited by many loyal friends, among whom were the novelist Captain Mayne Reid, George Rex Graham, Sartain the engraver, Louis Godey, the editor, F. 0. C. Darley, an illustrator, Hirst, the poet, Thomas Clarke, the publisher, and others, Poe himself experienced the pangs of poverty and despair. He was in correspondence with James Russell Lowell and other notables, but unable through various causes, largely due to his temperament and his physical condition, to cope with the world. Sometime in the fall of 1843 he made an abortive attempt to issue a new edition of his tales as The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe. There was a small edition in paper covers to be sold at 12½ cents, but No. 1, containing "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Man that Was Used Up,", is the only one of the series known to have appeared, although one copy containing the first tale only is known to exist. This is the rarest of all Poe items from a collector's standpoint. The little paper pamphlet was the seventh of Poe's works. It brought the author no returns. 

Reduced to the direst necessity, and finding all avenues closed to him in Philadelphia, he now determined to return to New York. Mrs. Clemm was left behind to close up the house, and on April 6, 1844, taking his invalid wife with him, Poe set out for New York City. He arrived there the same evening with $4.50 in his pockets and no definite prospects. 

Poe and his invalid wife found shelter in a humble boarding house at 130 Greenwich Street. In immediate need of funds he turned one of his favorite tricks and wrote a false news story for the New York Sun, later republished as "The Balloon Hoax." Such hoaxes were "popular" at the time and indulged in by newspaper editors. The story was clever, is notable even now, and fooled thousands at that time—much to Poe's delight. The money so earned enabled Mrs. Clemm to come over from Philadelphia and join the two in New York. Leaving his family at the Greenwich Street lodgings, Poe then boarded alone for a time with a Mrs. Foster at number 4 Ann Street. During the spring and summer of 1844 he managed to scrape enough together by hack articles, some of which appeared in the Columbia (Pa.) Spy, and Godey's Lady's Book, the Ladies' Home Journal of the day, to exist himself and just barely keep his family. 

Virginia's health grew steadily worse and in the early summer of 1844 the whole group moved out to the country to a farm located on Bloomingdale Road at what is now Eighty-fourth Street and Broadway. The farm was owned by a kindly Irish couple with a large family, the Brennans. Here for a few months in what was then a charming rural solitude in the beautiful Hudson Valley, Poe seems to have enjoyed a brief period of peace. During this interval he composed "The Raven," or rather put it into final form, as the poem is known to have been in existence in earlier versions as far back as 1842. The idea of the raven itself was taken from Barnaby Rudge. During the summer Poe carried on a correspondence with James Russell Lowell who was writing a brief biography of Poe for Graham's, and with Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers, a Georgia poet whose work undoubtedly influenced the Raven's author. 

By autumn the poet was again destitute and Mrs. Clemm now exerted herself to secure him some salaried work. She called on Nathaniel P. Willis, then editor of the New York Evening Mirror and persuaded him to employ Poe in a minor editorial capacity. Sometime in the fall of 1844 the family again moved to a town lodging at 15 Amity Street, New York City, where they occupied a few rooms. 

Poe continued to turn out considerable hack work for Willis and also through the columns of the Mirror found opportunity to call attention to himself, to notice Miss Barrett's (later Mrs. Robert Browning) poetry favorably, and to involve himself in an unfortunate attack upon Longfellow known as the "Little Longfellow War," with various reverberations. By the end of 1844 Poe was ready to sever connection with Willis who remained his firm friend until the end. Through the good offices of Lowell, Poe had been put in touch with some minor journalists about New York who were ready to launch a new weekly to be called The Broadway Journal. Upon this paper Poe was retained in a more important editorial capacity than Mr. Willis could offer him. 

In January, 1845, Poe's poem "The Raven" was published annoymously in the Evening Mirror in advance of its appearance in the American Whig Review for February. It created a furor, and on Saturday, February 8, 1845, Mr. Willis reprinted it over the author's name in the Evening Mirror. Poe's reputation immediately took on the aspects of fame which it never afterward lost. It is safe to say that no poem in America had ever been so popular. The poet continued to edit the Broadway Journal in which he carried on the Longfellow controversy, reviewed books, published and republished his poetry, wrote dramatic reviews and literary criticism, and reprinted many of his stories now more eagerly read as coming from a famous pen. He was also preparing to become owner of the Broadway Journal and for this purpose went into debt, in the meanwhile quarreling with Briggs, one of his partners. 

He now too began for the first time since early Richmond days to lead a less lonely life and to go about in a semi-literary and artistic society. Poe was much seen during the winter of 1845 in the "salons" of various writers and minor social lights of New York who were known as the literati. Through Mr. Willis he met a Mrs. Fanny Osgood, the wife of an artist of some note and a minor poetess, with whom he soon struck up an intimate if not tender friendship. He followed her about to such an extent that she was finally compelled through the scandal involved and on account of her own tubercular condition to go to Albany. Poe pursued her there, then to Boston, and thence to Providence, R. I., where on a lonely walk late one evening be first saw a Mrs. Helen Whitman to whom he afterwards became engaged. The second poem called "To Helen" celebrates this meeting. 

Lowell visited Poe in New York in the spring of 1845 and found Poe slightly intoxicated in his lodgings at 195 Broadway, whither he had lately moved. In July, Dr. Chivers also visited him and saw him at times much under the influence but nevertheless with the characteristics of genius about him. 

Poe's affairs despite his growing fame did not prosper. He contributed a series of articles to Godey's Lady's Book on the literati of New York. They were personal sketches combined with the obiter dicta of the author and a dash of literary criticism that caused considerable stir at the time and in one or two cases involved Poe in undignified quarrels. The "Literati Papers" do not belong to Poe's more serious literary criticism but are essentially a contemporary and easy comment on persons he knew, most of them obscure. 

At the end of 1845 despite his desperate efforts, the Broadway Journal failed, leaving its editor and by that time sole owner, in debt, despondent, and in ill health. Virginia, his wife, continued to decline and was nearing the grave. Poe was once more without means of support. In the meantime he had again moved his lodgings to 185 Amity Street. An unfortunate lecture at Boston in the fall of the year had provided an opportunity for Poe, then in a serious nervous condition, to make more or less an exhibition of himself. The affair was taken up by his enemies in New York and made the most of. All this served to add to his depression. Despite such, however, he had succeeded in bringing out in June, 1845, Tales, a collection of his stories selected by E. A. Duyckinck, an able editor, and published by Wiley and Putnam. This was followed in December, 1845, by The Raven and Other Poems, a selection of his verse produced by the same publisher. In the series of Poe's work issued during his life time these two constituted the eighth and ninth books respectively. The Tales were in some cases bound in two volumes, and both outputs achieved a minor success. At the same time Poe was known to have been at work on an anthology of various American writers which occupied him from time to time for several years. It was never published, although some fragments of the manuscript exist. 

Poe's affairs and Virginia's health now once more necessitated a move to the country. While Poe traveled to Baltimore to lecture in the spring of 1846, Mrs. Clemm and Virginia again went to stay at the Bloomingdale farm. A few weeks later we find the entire family at a farm house on "Turtle Bay," now Forty-seventh Street and East River. The stop here was brief. Poe rented a little frame cottage at Fordham, then a small village about fifteen miles from New York, and to this the family moved at the end of May, 1846. 

In the puny cottage at Fordham, still preserved as a relic in Poe Park, New York City, the poet and his benign mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Clemm, experienced together the extremes of tragedy in poverty, death, and despair. The summer of 1846 was embittered by a violent quarrel with one T. D. English. whom Poe had attacked acidly in the "Literati Papers." English now "replied," and after a personal encounter with Poe, accused the latter of forgery in the New York Mirror. Poe sued the paper and recovered damages for a small amount in February, 1847. 

Poe's health was exceptionally bad, his wife continued to sink rapidly, and he himself could neither write much nor obtain employment. During much of the time Mrs. Clemm by various artifices and wiles kept bread in their mouths. She both borrowed and begged, and was even reduced to the necessity of digging vegetables by night in the fields of neighboring farmers. With the arrival of cold weather the visits of friends and curious persons from the city ceased and the Poes were left alone to face the rigors of winter without fuel or sufficient clothing or food. Under these inflictions Virginia sank rapidly. She lay in a bed of straw with her husband's cloak wrapped around her and a pet cat on her bosom to help provide warmth. In December, 1846, the family was visited by a friend from New York, Mrs. Mary Louise Shew, who found Virginia dying and Poe and his "mother" destitute. Through her kindness, and a public appeal in the papers, the immediate wants of the family were relieved and Virginia enabled to pass away in comparative peace at the end of January, 1847. She was buried at Fordham but afterwards removed to the side of her husband at Baltimore. 

After the death of Virginia, Mrs. Clemm continued to nurse Poe, who gradually returned to a somewhat better state of health. In this Mrs. Shew assisted until finally compelled to withdraw, due to the emotional demands of her patient. Helped by his friends Poe once more began to appear among the living. At Fordham he had written Eureka, a long "prose poem" of a semiscientific and metaphysical cast which was published in March, 1848, by Geo. B. Putnam of New York. This was the tenth and last of the poet's works published during his life time, although an "edition" of his tales dated 1849 is known to exist. The nature of Eureka forbade its being popular. Poe now took to lecturing after a trip to Philadelphia in the summer of 1847 when another lapse in drink almost proved fatal. 

The end of his life was marked by the publication of some of his most remarkable poems. "The Bells," "Ulalume," "Annabel Lee," and others, and by his infatuation with several women. 

During various lecture trips to Lowell, Mass., and Providence, R. I., he became acquainted with Annie Richmond and Sarah Helen Whitman, the former a married woman, and the latter a widow of some literary reputation and considerable charm. After a visit to Richmond, Va., in the summer of 1848 in which he tried to fight a duel with one Daniels, the editor of a Richmond newspaper, and again lapsed into drink, he began to pay court to Mrs. Whitman, making several visits to Providence and carrying on a fervid correspondence. He finally obtained her reluctant consent to marry him on his promise of refraining from the glass. Poe, however, now in a sadly shattered state, was also "in love," or so dependent upon the sympathy of Mrs. Richmond that in an attempt to put an end to his impossible emotional problems he tried suicide by swallowing laudanum in Boston in November, 1848. The dose proved an emetic and he survived. 

Next day in a state bordering upon insanity he appeared in Providence and begged Mrs. Whitman to carry out her promise. She, it appears, hopeful of perhaps saving him from himself was about to marry the poet but the opposition of relatives and another lapse from sobriety on the part of Poe, finally brought about his dismissal. Greatly chagrined he returned to Fordham the same evening to the comforting ministrations of poor Mrs. Clemm who was reluctantly preparing to welcome a bride. 

Poe attempted to hush the matter up and to carry it off with some bravado. News of the affair was noised about, however, and caused considerable scandal. He now threw himself into writing with renewed activity, meanwhile continuing his correspondence with Mrs. Richmond. Misfortune continued to dog his steps. Magazines which had accepted his work failed, or suspended payment, his health again gave way, and Mrs. Clemm was compelled to nurse him through delirium. Finally somewhat recovered, but a mere ghost of himself, he undertook to revive his scheme of a magazine, The Stylus, and with funds furnished by a western admirer, E. H. N. Patterson, he set out for Richmond, Va., in the spring of 1849, hoping to obtain help there from old friends. Mrs. Clemm was left behind in New York at the house of a poetess in Brooklyn who was under obligations to Poe. 

On the way to Richmond, Poe stopped off in Philadelphia where he again came to drink and wandered in a distracted state. Finally he was rescued from prison and the streets by some faithful friends who raised sufficient funds to send him on his way. 

Warned by what bad been a near approach to death in Philadelphia, Poe strove with all that was in him to refrain from wine, and for some time succeeded. In Richmond he was able with the help of old friends and others, who now recognized both his weakness and his genius, to stage a brief "come back." He delivered lectures at both Richmond and Norfolk with great success, appeared with applause and dignity in society, and was finally, after some difficulty, once more able to obtain the promise of his youthful flame Elmira Royster—-now Mrs. A. B. Shelton, a widow in good circumstances, to marry him. 

Preparations for the wedding went forward; the date was set. For a while it looked as if the romance of the poet's youth with Elmira was to be rewarded by her hand and a considerable dower in middle life. Letters were written to Mrs. Clemm announcing the state of affairs, and Poe was ready to return to New York in order to bring her back to Richmond for the wedding. There can be very little doubt that in all these plans, Poe saw not only the return of his "lost Lenore," but a comfortable old age provided for Mrs. Clemm, shelter from the world, and escape from poverty. At the very last he wrote Mrs. Clemm saying that he still loved Mrs. Annie Richmond and wished that "Mr. R." would die. With this letter, one of the last he wrote, the curious story of his affections ends with contradiction and ambiguity, as it began. 

Taking some little cash which had been received from the proceeds of a lecture given shortly before his departure, Poe left Richmond very early in the morning of the twenty-third of September, 1849. The evening before had been spent with Mrs. Shelton and the marriage had been set for October seventeenth. Poe had not been able to refrain entirely from drinking while in Richmond and he was undoubtedly in a an abnormal condition upon his departure. The testimony shows, however, that he was quite sober at that particular time. 

He traveled by steamer to Baltimore and arrived there on September twentyninth. Exactly what happened to him in that city cannot now be ascertained. An election was in progress, and the preponderance of evidence points to the fact that he began to drink and fell into the hands of a gang of repeaters who probably gave him drugged liquor and voted him. On October third he was found by Dr. James E. Snodgrass, an old friend, in a, horrible condition at a low tavern in Lombard Street. Summoning a relative of Poe, Dr. Snodgrass had the now unconscious and dying poet taken in a carriage to the Washington Hospital and put into the care of Dr. J. J. Moran, the resident physician. Several days of delirium ensued with only a few intervals of partial consciousness. He called repeatedly for one "Reynolds," and gave vent to every indication of utter despair. Finally on Sunday morning, October 7, 1849, "He became quiet and seemed to rest for a short time. Then, gently, moving his head, he said, 'Lord help my poor soul.'" As he had lived so he died—in great misery and tragedy. 

Hervey Allen.
August, 1927.

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