Text: Anonymous, “[Edgar Allan Poe's Fame],” New York Times (New York, NY), February 11, 1882, p. 4, col. 6

[page 4, column 6, continued:]

It is hardly doubtful that the fame of EDGAR ALLAN POE has been kept alive to a large extent, by the quarrels of his critics and admirers. The unfortunate poet not permitted to slumber like any other decent shade, and his sins are still weighed and balanced in the public places. As Mr. POE'S sins are now of the slightest possible consequence, and as it matters little whether or not he got drunk at inspiring intervals, it is remarkable that this recurrent jangle over his grave has not finally ceased. To the present generation Poe is simply one of the few who are remembered in virtue, not of their personalities, but of their individualities. What he has put into his books is all that we really care for now, and this is perhaps, worth an occasional argument. Nevertheless, the old dispute goes oil, and the assailants and defenders of the lamented author of “The Black Cat” are still at their savage task. The latest who has spoken is Dr. J. J. MORAN who saw Poe in the hospital in Baltimore when the latter was on his deathbed. As this gentleman's testimony relates almost entirely to the familiar charge that Poe was picked out of a gutter drunk and was carried in a happy state of inebriety to the hospital, it will naturally arouse the interest of a great many pugnacious persons, though it is happily possible that Dr. MORAN'S declaration may settle a very uncertain and highly disagreeable point in the poet's life. Dr. MORAN, who has been lecturing upon this matter, pretends to give a truthful account of Poe's last visit to Baltimore. According to Dr. MORAN'S tale Poe was walking about the streets of Baltimore on the night before his death, he rambled on until he reached a dangerous part of the city where it was held unsafe for a man to loiter alone; he was followed, Dr. MORAN asserts, by two or three men who tell upon him and forced him into a low den where he was drugged, robbed, and stripped. Clothed in rags and utterly dazed, Poe was then thrust into the street. He soon stumbled and lay for a long time insensible in the cutting October air. He was found in this condition [column 7:] by a gentleman who obtained a hack and had the unfortunate man borne to the hospital. Here he revived, and here he finally died. Dr. MORAN, who was with him at the time, and who examined him carefully, states in the most positive manner that Poe was not under the influence of drink, and that he did not die from intoxication.