Nevermore

Edgar Allen Poe died of rabies.
Apparently, this is really old news (like almost a decade), but I thought it was interesting that 1, this doesn't seem to have been widely publicized and 2, they're still teaching that he drank himself to death in the high school (at least in our local high school).
Based on descriptions of his symptoms, modern doctors have guessed that the cause of death was not "congestion of the brain" as the presiding physician noted on the death certificate, but probably, rabies contracted most likely from one of the many cats that Poe kept. Of all the things I never learned about Edgar Allen Poe, that he died of rabies is only slightly less surprising than the fact that he was a cat-person. Whodathunkit.
Poor guy seems he's gonna be a drunkard and addict for all history. If only he didn't have so many cats.