By the spring of 1846, Edgar Allan Poe and his wife Virginia had been living in New York for two years. His poem “The Raven” had been published a year earlier to great acclaim, the New York literary community had welcomed him, and he had become the sole proprietor of The Broadway Journal. All, however, was not well. He lost the journal partly due to his alcoholism, he stirred up well-publicized battles due to his stinging literary reviews, and Virginia was in ill health. In April 1846, the Cincinnati Chronicle reported on a rumor circulating in New York City that Poe had “become deranged.” The Chronicle writer insisted that if the rumor was true, it should not surprise anyone. Poe “has been an opium eater for many years,” he explained, “and madness would be a natural result.” The paper included no source and no evidence.
This item is intriguing, especially as no well-known Americans at the time struggled openly with the abuse of opiates—drugs that derive from the opium poppy. There was a greater degree of openness in England. Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge became dependent on laudanum, which is opium mixed with alcohol. In 1814, he expressed hope that after his death the story of his struggle would be made public, so “at least some little good may be effected by the direful example!” Scholars believe that he wrote his poem “Kubla Khan” while under the drug’s influence. Thomas De Quincey published Confessions of an English Opium-Eater in 1821, the earliest extant memoir written by a drug-dependent person. Many assert that Poe used opium habitually—a common framing at the time for drug dependency. Most sources, however, are akin to the article from 1846: written with an air of certainty but either lacking evidence or pointing to mentions of opium in his fiction, which is hardly conclusive proof. Regardless, they were on to something, as evidence suggests that Poe had periods of habitual indulgence in opium, probably as a substitute for alcohol.
Many writers refer to Poe’s opium dependency as if it were certain, and they include no supporting evidence. In a 1909 article in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, George L. Knapp stated that few people knew that Poe “was a confirmed user of opium.” In 1913, historian Harry Cook stated that Poe’s “indulgence in opium and intoxicants increased” in the mid-1830s. Some maintain that opium use inspired Poe’s writings, much as laudanum inspired Coleridge to write “Kubla Khan.” The writer for the Cincinnati Chronicle stated that Poe’s “horrible stories are supposed to have been written while he was under the influence” of opium. In 1881, Dr. Leslie Keeley stated that “The Raven” had been “inspired by the poppy juice.”