Poe’s Last Words
by Professor Solomon
http://www.professorsolomon.com
Poe’s Last Words
W
detective story, which he invented. But Poe alsobequeathed to us a real-life mystery—that of hisdeathbed cries.He had been found, intoxicated and delirious, on a Balti-more street, and taken to a hospital. There, according toDr. Moran, the attending physician: “This state [of delirium]continued until Saturday evening...when he commencedcalling for one ‘Reynolds,’ which he did through the nightuntil three on Sunday morning.” Who was Reynolds? And why would Poe, in his finalhours, have called for him?The standard view among Poe’s biographers is that he was calling for Jeremiah Reynolds (although Henry Reynolds,a carpenter who lived nearby, has also been suggested). Jeremiah Reynolds was an advocate for polar exploration.His theory of a polar opening—an abyss at the South Poleinto which the ocean flowed—had figured in two of Poe’s works:
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
and “MS.Found in a Bottle.” (At the conclusion of both tales, a ves-sel is drawn into the abyss.) Poe also reviewed a pamphlet,about a proposed expedition, that Reynolds had written;the review praised Reynolds as “the active, the intelligent,the indomitable advocate of the enterprise.” And Poe may have known him while living in New York.So why would Poe, on his deathbed, have called out forReynolds? One biographer, Arthur Hobson Quinn, offersthis explanation:“On Saturday night he began to call loudly for ‘Reynolds!’Perhaps to his dim and tortured brain, he seemed to be onthe brink of a great descending circle sweeping down likethe phantom ship in the ‘Manuscript Found in a Bottle’into ‘darkness and the distance.’” And Robert Almy offers a similar explanation:
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Poe's Last Words
Poe's last words may have been misheard by the physician who reported them.
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