NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

The following newspaper article announced a new theory about Poe’s death, developed by Dr. R. Michael Benitez. In response to this article, Burton R. Pollin and Robert E. Benedetto wrote a letter disputing Dr. Benitez’s theory. Dr. Benitez replied by writing a letter defending his ideas. Both letters follow this article.

Poe's Death Is Rewritten as Case of Rabies, Not Telltale Alcohol

from The New York Times, September 15, 1996

Edgar Allan Poe did not die drunk in a gutter in Baltimore but rather had rabies, a new study suggests.

The researcher, Dr. R. Michael Benitez, a cardiologist¹ who practices a block from Poe’s grave, says it is true that the writer was seen in a bar on Lombard Street in October 1849, delirious and possibly wearing somebody else’s soiled clothes.

But Poe was not drunk, said Dr. Benitez, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “I think Poe is much maligned in that respect,” he added.

The writer entered Washington College Hospital comatose,² Dr. Benitez said, but by the next day was perspiring heavily, hallucinating, and shouting at imaginary companions. The next day, he seemed better but could not remember falling ill.

On his fourth day at the hospital, Poe again grew confused and belligerent, then quieted down and died.

That is a classic case of rabies, the doctor said. His study is in the September issue of The Maryland Medical Journal.

In the brief period when he was calm and awake, Poe refused alcohol and could drink water only with great difficulty. Rabies victims frequently exhibit hydrophobia, or fear of water, because it is painful to swallow.

There is no evidence that a rabid animal had bitten Poe. About one fourth of rabies victims reportedly cannot remember being bitten. After an infection, the symptoms can take up to a year to appear. But when the symptoms do appear, the disease is a swift and brutal killer. Most patients die in a few days.

Poe “had all the features of encephalitic³ rabies,” said Dr. Henry Wilde, who frequently treats rabies at Chulalongkorn University Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

Although it has been well established that Poe died in the hospital, legend has it that he succumbed in the gutter, a victim of his debauched⁴ ways.

“Poe’s Death Is Rewritten as Case of Rabies, Not Telltale Alcohol” from The New York Times, September 15, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by The Associated Press. Reproduced by permission of the copyright holder.