Text: Eugene L. Didier, “Dedication,” The Poe Cult and Other Poe Papers (1909), p. 3

Notes:

J. D'Arcy Didier was born in Baltimore in March, 1886. (The specific day is not recorded.) He died on August 23, 1907, of typhoid fever. (See his obituary in the Baltimore Sun for August 31, 1907, p. 7, col. 4.) At the time, he was serving in the military, in company A of the Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard. E. L. Didier had one son and six daughters. All members of the family are buried at the New Cathedral Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery at 4300 Old Frederick Road in Baltimore, MD. E. L. Didier blamed his son's death on “the treatment which he received while in camp near the Jamestown Exposition.” Apparently it was a hazing custom of men who were new to the company to toss them in a blanket. In this case, D'Arcy, as he was generally known, was presumably dizzy after this experience and stumbled over a tent rope and bruised his right arm. It is not clear how this event would be related to getting typhoid fever. Other members of the company described him as already being “in delicate health when he went to camp” (see Lancaster Examiner (Lancaster, PA), September 4, 1907, p. 2, col. 2). His first name is never given in full, but he may have been named Julian, after his grandmother, Juliana.