POE: Cause of Death - Theory #1 - Brain Tumor

Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances at a hospital in Baltimore on October 7, 1849. It was 175 years ago this week! His family and friends back in Richmond didn't even know he was sick until after he was buried in an unmarked grave in the family plot.

No one knows quite how he died. He was found in a tavern in Baltimore on Friday, October 3, by a printer named Joseph Walker, who recognized the famous poet and writer. It was Election Day, and the tavern doubled as a voting location. Walker observed that Poe was semiconscious and dressed strangely in a crumpled shirt, dirty hat, and pants that did not fit him. He was not coherent enough to explain how he arrived at such a state, and he quickly became even more delirious. He was taken to a hospital in Baltimore, where he died four days later. The official cause of death was phrenitis or swelling of the brain, but many conditions can cause that state.

Much speculation has arisen over the years to explain Poe's sudden and mysterious death. Modern science can help us understand one theory, which holds that Poe died of a brain tumor.

Twenty-six years after his death, Poe was exhumed and moved to a better location in the Baltimore graveyard, where a proper monument had been built in his honor. As workers were digging up his coffin, it fell apart. One of the workers observed that a rock-like mass was rolling around in Poe’s skull.

 

Newspaper reports of that time concluded that the think in his skull was Poe’s brain. Scientists today know that the mass could not have been brain matter because the delicate soft tissue is one of the first things to decompose after death. Matthew Pearl was an author who wrote about Poe’s death. He asked a forensic pathologist what the mass might have been. The pathologist confirmed that a brain would not turn into a hard, calcified mass after death, but a brain tumor definitely could.

To find out more about the mysterious death of Poe, read my new book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles. You can preview the entire book for free until January 2, 2025 on Net Galley. Find out details HERE. Also, watch this BLOG for more fascinating Cause of Death Theories coming each week in October. See this month's free literacy activity on Writing Scary Stories.

Sign up HERE for the Carolee Dean, Author newsletter and receive a FREE digital copy of my book, No Gift for Man. You will also receive monthly updates, book news, and FREEBIES. 

Authentic Writing Experience for October - Writing Scary Stories

 

In celebration of the release of my new book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles, coming October 15, this month's Authentic Writing Experience is about Scary Stories, and it's just in time for Halloween. We all love scary stories - if they're not too scary. They are great for sitting around a campfire or making a cold winter night more interesting. All cultures have scary stories. Scary stories help us face our fears. They give us a way to deal with difficult concepts like death.

Did you know that Frankenstein was created by Mary Shelley when she was 18 years old on a rainy afternoon when she and her husband, Percy Shelley, and their friend, Lord Byron, were trapped indoors? They didn't have Netflix or cable TV, so they spent their time writing ghost stories and sharing them with each other. Would you like some real-life inspiration for a scary story? Watch the video on the HISTORY website that tells how Mary Shelley carried around her husband's heart after he died.

Or maybe your students would get inspired from reading about the many theories on the death of Edgar Allan Poe. It is a mystery that has never been solved. I explore several theories in the background section of The Raven Remix. This month I will be sharing some of them here on my blog so keep watching. The first Cause of Death Theory may be found HERE. 

Writing can be intimidating for many students. Therefore, I'm including a fun fill-in-the-blank story starter for this month's AWE activity.  I included a mini word matrix for the base element SPECT (as in specter). There also are a series of questions to help students build a complex sentence. To learn more about using the matrix for Structured Word Inquiry and morphology instruction, see my blog post HERE. Find the downloadable PDF for the Scary Story Starter HERE. It includes the three pages seen below.

And don't forget to check out The Raven Remix. The five animals on the cover all come from stories by Poe. He is considered by many to be the father of American Gothic Horror. Elements of several of his stories appear in The Raven Remix.  He faced much death and tragedy in his life, and it clearly inspired his writing. You may preview the entire book on Net Galley from now until January 2, 2025. Find out details HERE. 

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.

The Raven Remix - Just in Time for Halloween and Dyslexia Awareness Month

I'm thrilled to announce that my new decodable chapter book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles will be available for purchase on October 15 in paperback and hardcover - Just in time for Halloween and Dyslexia Awareness Month! You can pre-order the e-book on Amazon. From now until January 2, 2025, you can preview the entire book for free on Net Galley and share the story with your students. If you do, please leave a review. That's the purpose of Net Galley. You may use the QR code above or use the NET GALLEY LINK. 

Here are directions for how to read Net Galley books on your computer - https://netgalley.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003979634-How-do-I-read-digital-review-copies-on-my-computer.

Here are some early reviews:

“Dean transforms the darker tones of Poe into imaginative humor and mystery. The Raven Remix remains true to Poe’s brilliant use of language, while this delightful, decodable poem provides readers access to the actual meaning of ‘language arts.’ Dean’s work of art is relatable and fun and supports all levels of readers. The Raven Remix can be used in reading instruction and vocabulary development with students from the 5^th/6^th grades and up, though younger students might enjoy hearing this poem for the lyric rhyming. - Paula Moraine, M. Ed. Author of Helping Students Take Control of Everyday Executive Functions-The Attention Fix and Autism and Everyday Executive Functions

 
“The Raven Remix will help increase your students’ reading skills while inspiring a sense of wonder. It combines the research, the poetry of storytelling, and a compelling narrative to weave a thought-provoking book perfect for students in 5^th grade and higher. Dean has provided a simple introduction to Poe’s exciting work while increasing awareness of the lifelong resilience that many students need. It should be on every classroom shelf.” - Cynthia Barton, LSP, MA, PA, School Psychologist

“Weltner’s grayscale illustrations effectively match the grim tone of Poe’s “The Raven,” and their cartoonish style will engage young readers and improve their comprehension of the text…An unusual alternative introduction to Poe…” Kirkus Reviews

Krista Weltner created the cover image for the Raven Remix and the Illustrations. One of her illustrations from the book is below. A young man visits the Ed A. P. Book Stop, Pet Shop, Inn & Grill to be greeted by a most unusual host. The boy opens a book, and animals from various Poe short stories emerge. The background section includes exciting facts about Poe's life and interesting theories about his death.

Krista is a talented young artist with dyslexia. See the INTERVIEW I did with her last October for Dyslexia Awareness Month when her picture book series came out.

Watch this blog for a month full of scary stories and Poe Trivia. His death is still one of the great unsolved mysteries, but many intriguing theories have developed over the years.

Sign up HERE for the Carolee Dean, Author newsletter and receive a FREE digital copy of my book, No Gift for Man. You will also receive monthly updates, book news, and FREEBIES.