Edgar Allan Poe died on this day, 169 years ago at the age of 40. On 3 October 1849, he was found collapsed outside Gunner’s Hall at 44 East Lombard Street in Baltimore by a printer named Joseph Walker.

Walker sent for Poe's friend Dr. Joseph Snodgrass who took Poe to Washington University Hospital. Initially it was presumed that he was inebriated, but Poe remained delirious and died four days later. The cause of his death remains a mystery.

Despite dying at the age of forty, Poe left a remarkable legacy as a poet, writer of tales, editor and critic.

Not only was Poe an innovator in science fiction, he is also credited with originating the detective genre with his C. Auguste Dupin stories. Further, Poe's stories of murder such as "The Tell Tale Heart", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Black Cat" were innovative in exploring the point of view of the perpetrator, using first person narration from an unreliable main character.