According to EAPoe.org, rumors that the Baltimore-based writer was also addicted to drugs like opium are largely unfounded. The confusion and assumptions stemmed from Poe’s characters often having opium addictions, and coupled with the commonly-held misconception that strange, highly imaginative writing is a symptom of drug use, many thought Poe took as much pleasure in opium as his characters. However, this is almost certainly not the case. The only time he admitted to using opium was part of a suicide attempt.

Alcohol abuse was common in the Poe family, however. Both his father and brother were consumed by drink, although their addictions were more of a steady consumption, while Poe was prone to binges and then long periods of sobriety. Poe would drink heavily for a few days, then spend the rest of the week confined to his bed, then go months or years without sipping another drop of alcohol. There were constant promises during these drink-free periods that he was done with alcohol for good, an all-too-familiar claim from someone who clearly had a problem that was only made worse by tragedy, and there was certainly no shortage of that in the writer’s life.