Brain inflammation, rabies, fever, improper care, and alcohol. Over the years people have concluded Poe’s life was taken away by one of the following, but how can we be sure which actually killed him? Well we could start by analyzing the evidence.

According to a letter written by Jos. W. Walker to Dr. J.E. Snodgrass, he reveals many interesting points that can lead to the solution. For example he says, “Dr. Snodgrass found Poe semiconscious and dressed in cheap, ill-fitting clothes so unlike Poe's usual mode of dress.” When we read this sentence it rules out the option of brain inflammation, or when the brain swells. Why is it that if you have brain inflammation you would be dressing improperly? You wouldn’t,  but if you are drunk you may be found like that.

Jos W. Walker also writes, “Poe was taken to Washington College Hospital on the afternoon of October 3 and did not regain consciousness until the next morning.” This line actually increases one of possibilities which is the theory of alcohol. In many scenarios, both in real life, the media, and in movies we can see that when a person drinks alcohol there brain cells start to destroy and there is a possibility that they would pass out. Mr. Poe has just been stated to be in that kind of situation.

In The article, The (still) Mystery Death of Edgar Allen Poe (section on alcohol) it reads, “As his close friend J. P. Kennedy wrote on October 10, 1949: "On Tuesday last Edgar A. Poe died in town here at the hospital from the effects of a debauch. . . . He fell in with some companion here who seduced him to the bottle, which it was said he had renounced some time ago.” This confirms my theory that alcoholism is the reason why poe died.

According to this is proves that Poe did have a bottle of alcohol with a companion, but there is more to this article!Along with that line it also reads, “The consequence was fever, delirium, and madness, and in a few days a termination of his sad career in the hospital.” This shows that he did have a fever/ sickness, but it was all due to him drinking, not from rabies or brain inflammation, but from consuming alcohol. After analyzing all the data, I have confirmed that alcohol is the main reason Poe’s life was taken away.