Text: William Hand Browne, “As to Poe's Death,” Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), vol. CXLIV, no. 58, January 13, 1909, p. 14, col. 8

[page 14, column 8, continued:]

Concerning the death of Poe Dr. William Hand Browne, professor of English literature in Johns Hopkins University, writes to THE SUN:

Messrs. Editors:

I dislike extremely to see conjectures, however, plausible, asserted as historical facts. All (or nearly all) the writers who mention the tragic end of Poe's life tell us that on October 3, 1849, he was wandering about, Baltimore In a state of intoxication; that he was seized, carried off to a “coop,” drugged, voted at various places and then thrust into the street to die. Readers will probably be surprised to learn that while these things are possible, there is no proof of any one of them. There is no proof that he was intoxicated, that he was “cooped,” that he was drugged, that he was voted or that he was turned into the street.

The attested facts are these: According to the letter of Mrs. Weiss, of Richmond (cited by Professor Harrison In his biography), Poe was “quite sober” when he took the boat for Baltimore. The next certain news of him is contained in the pencil note from Mr. Walker to Dr. Snodgrass, which I quote in full from a copy made by myself from the original, then in the possession of Mrs. Snodgrass:

All that we learn from this is that there was at Ryans “a gentleman” named Poe, alarmingly ill. There is no intimation of intoxication. It is true that Dr. Snodgrass, writing a statement 18 years later. In which a very shaky memory is helped out by a lively imagination, quotes Walker as saying “in a state of beastly intoxication,” but, unfortunately for himself, the Doctor neglected to destroy the original letter, and we now know that Walker said no such thing.

From Ryan's Poe was taken in an unconscious state to the Washington University Hospital, on Broadway, where he died four days later. Of his condition and last hours we have an account in a letter of Dr. Moran, the resident physician, to Mrs. Clemm, dated November 15, and reproduced by Professor Harrison. In this the Doctor speaks of delirium, but says nothing of intoxication. Mrs. Moran, who helped to nurse the dying poet, says, in a statement furnished by her nephew: “When the young man was brought Into the hospital in a stupor it was supposed he was overcome by drink. * * * We soon saw that he was a gentleman,” and the Doctor had him removed to a room near his own apartments. During big intervals of consciousness this good woman read the Bible to him.

As for the “coop,” Mr. E. Spencer, in an article in the New York Herald (cited by Professor Harrison), says that it was not at Ryan's. As for the drugging, voting and turning into the street, there is no evidence at all.

Now, while I concede that the generally accepted account may be true, it entirely lacks proof. There is nothing in the authenticated facts Incompatible with the theory that Poe was attacked by brain fever and sought shelter in Ryan's, perhaps the nearest refuge, where his desperate condition alarmed Mr. Walker.

WILLIAM HAND BROWNE.