I'm doing a english independent study on Edgar Allen Poe, I was curious if there are any lies, rumours or myths about him. I know that he was an excessive drinker. If there is anything else, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2003

Answers

Necrophilia- false, spread by Rufus Griswold who carried his own grieving a bit far by breaking into his wife's tomb. Poe would visit his woife's grave and weep there quite a bit. Pot calling the kettle black.

Drugs: no. Limited medicinal usage. One fake suicide attempt for sympathy.

Insane, no. Just read his articles, comedies. In other words don't judge a man by a few fictions he wrote for profit.

How his behavior or imagination was affected by substance abuse is greatly overstated. Yet his health suffered much combined with poverty and bad diet.

Despite his photos(some taken in the harrowing times before his death) he was not clad in black with "raven" black hair, but in brown.

Check out www.eapoe.org for many more details.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2003