Did Edgar Allan Poe have Narcolepsy? I have that he did, but I don't find any reference to the disorder in his many biographies. Please respond ASAP.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2003

Answers

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that affects sleeping- functions. Nothing to do with what we know about Poe's health. Perhaps you confuse with catalepsy, well described by Poe in some of his tales, for some of his created characters, but, in any case, not at all a disease affecting him, the creator. Note that up-dated nosology may understand the catalepsy of Poe's days as some recently pointed out forms of narcolepsy. Note, too, the heavy temptation to attribute to Poe himself the diseases he so brightly depicted in his fictions in order to convey some powerful effect, and regularly, too, to revisit Poe's works with new scientifc informations, always implicitly confusing the author/creator with his creatures. Poor Poe! You know, Poe was ever brilliant, when staging, almost like a clinician, various sufferers for his own artistic purposes. Poe's own force and... health! Yours sincerely, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2003