Midnight Dreary by John Walsh

Midnight Dreary by John Walsh

While traveling alone from Richmond, Virginia, to New York City, Poe disappeared for nearly a week. When seen again he was terribly drunk and nearly dead in Baltimore. In the hospital, four days later, after periods of raving delirium, he died. The immediate cause of death given was congestion of the brain. At first no one seriously doubted that Poe died from drunken debauchery. However, Poe adherents suggested many theories of a physical nature about precipitating causes but no one has seroiusly probed the mystery of the missing week . . . until now.

JOHN EVANGELIST WALSH is the author of numerous books of biography and history, including biographies of Emily Dickinson, John Keats, and Robert Frost as well as two well-received works on Abraham Lincoln. He has three times been a finalist for an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, winning once for Poe the Detective: The Curious Circumstances Behind The Mystery of Marie Roget. His book The Shadows Rise: AbrahamLincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend was a finalist for the prestigious Gettysburg Prize.