Edgar Allen Poe’s Self-Sabotage, Early Death, and Path to Becoming America’s Greatest Poet

History Unplugged Podcast · Oct 20, 2026 · 46m

In the summer of 1849, Edgar Allan Poe knocked on the door of his friend John Sartain's Philadelphia workshop, wild-eyed and without luggage. He had fled a train in New Jersey after overhearing passengers plotting to kill him. His senses had grown so acute, he said, that he could hear whispers from miles away. He asked for a razor to shave off his mustache so his assassins would not recognize him. Sartain, who was not about to hand his friend a blade, cut it off with scissors instead. That night, Sartain followed Poe on a midnight walk to a rickety platform high above the Schuylkill River and…