Lindsey Graham

He took Poe to a local hospital, where Poe drifted in and out of consciousness over the next few days.

Once again, he suffered from hallucinations.

His doctor wrote that he engaged in a vacant converse with spectral and imaginary objects on the walls.

His face was pale and his whole person drenched in perspiration.

Early in the morning of October 7, 1849, Poe died at the age of 40.

His last words were, "'Lord, help my poor soul.'"

He was buried in Baltimore in a cheap coffin, and his precise cause of death would remain a mystery.

Many assumed he drank himself to death.

Others believed that Poe was the victim of a type of voter fraud known as cooping.

In the 19th century, gangs would kidnap unsuspecting victims, force them to drink, and change their clothes multiple times so that they could cast multiple votes.

Other popular theories of his death include hypoglycemia, cholera, syphilis, and even rabies.

Poe's personal reputation shaped his legacy.

Two days after his death, the editor Rufus Griswold published an anonymous obituary in the widely read New York Daily Tribune.

Poe, the famous tomahawk man, had criticized Griswold's work years earlier, and Griswold never forgave him.

Now he would get his revenge.

Griswold began the obituary by declaring that few would grieve Poe because he had few friends.

He vilified Poe as a man without honor who was consumed by madness.

He declared, he walked the streets in madness or melancholy with lips moving in indistinct curses.

Poe's friends challenged Griswold's account, but the narrative stuck.

Making matters worse, Griswold convinced Maria Clem to give him control of Poe's literary estate.