On 9 October 1849, 177 years before this post, readers of the New-York Daily Tribune opened page two and found this:
"Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it."
It is one of the coldest first lines in literary history. The notice was signed only "Ludwig". The Edgar Allan Poe Society identifies the writer as Rufus Wilmot Griswold, a rival editor who went on to become Poe's literary executor.
Over two long columns, "Ludwig" calls Poe "one of its most brilliant but erratic stars", says he "had few or no friends", and dismisses him as a critic who was "little better than a carping grammarian." He also repeats colourful stories, such as a youthful adventure in St. Petersburg, that later biographers could not support.
There are two surprises. Tucked inside this hostile notice is a complete printing of "Annabel Lee", all six stanzas. And the writer admits at the end: "We have not learned the circumstances of his death." Nobody has fully learned them since.
The archive has the original newspaper scan and a full transcription, so you can read every word yourself.