# Did Edgar Allan Poe die of rabies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743 "2000-11-18T16:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/1 "2000-11-18T16:37:25Z")
Paul Harvey says yes. But I **never** believe anything that idiot says without checking and double-checking. [This article](http://cavalierdaily.com/.Archives/1996/September/16/nspoe.asp) describes the findings of Dr. R. Michael Benitez that purports to show that Poe probably died of rabies. However, [this page from The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore](http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm) says Benitez’s conclusion is based on bad information. Who’s right? ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/2 "2000-11-18T17:01:00Z")
I was under the impression that he’d died from syphilis, but I’m not sure where I got that. That or liver cirrhosis-- I’m not sure whether rabies should be up at the top of the list of possibilities, though. Doesn’t it seem that doctors who go on these historical goose chases often have some odd motive or agenda to forward (i.e. rehabilitating a reputation, etc.)? ---
**Author:** ![orion007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@orion007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orion007)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/3 "2000-11-18T17:46:06Z")
I thought he died cause he was drunk and fell into a puddle and drowned, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/4 "2000-11-18T17:57:41Z")
He was murdered. Poisoned. This is the theory convincingly presented as a _roman policier_ in _The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe_ by George Egon Hatvary. In this novel, Poe’s fictional French detective from “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” is real; he comes over from France when he hears that his friend Edgar is dead, because he smells a rat. He exhumes Poe’s corpse, finds arsenic in it, and eventually tracks down the murderer. There was a 1931 book also titled _The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe_ by J. A. T. Lloyd, but I haven’t read it. According to the Library of Congress catalog, this one is nonfiction. Poe did not fall into a puddle and drown. He was found unconscious on the street dressed in somebody else’s clothes (to make him look like a derelict bum). Who did this? He died without regaining consciousness. I don’t think foul play can be ruled out. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/5 "2000-11-18T18:00:35Z")
Lloyd points the finger at Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Poe’s literary executor. Hatvary fingered someone else, but I won’t post a spoiler to his detective novel. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/6 "2000-11-18T18:11:36Z")
Auguste Dupin – that was the French detective’s name. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/7 "2000-11-18T22:16:10Z")
Some have theorized that Poe died of rabies, simply because his symptoms seemed to match that disease. But the symptoms (deliriums, primarily) are hardly unique to that disease, and it’s difficult to translate the 19th century descriptions into 20th century diagnosis accurately. Rabies is one of several hypotheses going around (one was that he had proposed to someone and her family didn’t want Poe to marry her). At best, it’s a possibility, but no one can definitely say it’s the cause of his death. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_A\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Just\_A\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_A_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/8 "2000-11-19T00:16:11Z")
Anyone who knows anything about Edgar Allen Poe knows that he was a serious alcoholic. After his wife died he really hit his downward spiral and was constantly drinking and often delusional due, not only to alcohol, but because of another ailment which I can’t recall. (I want to say an internal cyst of some sort but I don’t know if that’s right.) He died in a gutter after getting horribly drunk, where he was found a few days later. Most things I’ve read said he died of liver problems caused by alcohol and/or syphillis. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/9 "2000-11-19T00:35:04Z")
Try this link for a neat summary…[http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg\_id=003oYG](http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=003oYG) And, yeah, I know it ain’t one of the neat, one word type. ---
**Author:** ![thenabster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@thenabster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thenabster)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/10 "2025-04-18T00:55:02Z")
Well was arsenic tested? ---
**Author:** ![thenabster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@thenabster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thenabster)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/11 "2025-04-18T00:55:39Z")
Maybe he was resistant to water but still drank? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/12 "2025-04-18T01:57:43Z")
Since we’re collecting random rumors - hadn’t he been going from precinct to precinct, voting multiple times for pay. On foot. In cold weather. Or is that hogwash. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-edgar-allan-poe-die-of-rabies/41743/13 "2025-04-18T02:13:10Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Since we’re collecting random rumors - hadn’t he been going from precinct to precinct, voting multiple times for pay. On foot. In cold weather. I just asked Google if there has been any new info in the past 24½ years. Turns out the head of the Edgar Allan Poe Society put out a new book; that theory is one which gets coverage. > **[How Exactly Did Edgar Allan Poe Die? David Gaylin’s New Book is a...](https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/edgar-allan-poe-death-theories-explored-david-gaylin-new-book/)** > > The president of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore aims to put all of the eternal theories to rest in ‘The Final Days of Edgar Allan Poe.’