But having said this, there were certain themes that ‘haunted’ Poe which Ackroyd looks at in great detail. Ackroyd’s short but succinct biography of this enigmatic literary figure begins with his death and the scant facts of his final days on earth.Īs an author of the perverse and the macabre, Poe’s literary legacy has somehow managed to pervade all aspects of his life, and this is something Ackroyd explores without falling into the trap of sensationalism. What happened during that missing week is a complete mystery one that is just as confounding as his tales of ‘ratiocination’ or detective fiction. This was the last sighting of Poe until he was found dying six days later in a dirty tavern. It is a fact that he died in a state of delirium, and was found in this state only a week after he had cheerfully waved goodbye to his aunt from a steamboat bound from Richmond to Baltimore. Anyone interested in the life of Poe will be aware of the tremendous hype surrounding his death.
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