Since he died, raving insanely in a hospital bed, Poe's demise has been the subject of a multitude of theories, ranging from murder to mugging to alcoholism to political skulduggery to catching an infectious disease such as rabies. Now a leading American author, who has written a novel about Poe's death, believes that he has come up with convincing evidence that could at last solve the puzzle: brain cancer.

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Matthew Pearl, author of The Poe Shadow, spent three years researching Poe, especially the circumstances of his death. He had hoped to uncover new evidence to solve a mystery that has perplexed experts for more than 150 years. He thinks he has unearthed proof that Poe had a terrible brain tumour, which could explain why he died so dramatically. 'It would explain his hallucinations and his mental state before he died,' Pearl told The Observer.

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Pearl's evidence came in the form of several old newspaper stories written about the exhumation of Poe's body 26 years after his death. Poe's coffin was being moved to a more prominent spot in the cemetery and the onlookers were amazed to see that his shrunken brain was still visible inside his skull. It was described as being 'dried and hardened in the skull' in an 1878 article in the St Louis Republican newspaper, whereas a letter in the Baltimore Gazette claimed that: 'The cerebral mass... evidenced no sign of disintegration or decay, though, of course, it is somewhat diminished.'

Pearl contacted a friend's wife who worked as a forensic pathologist. She pointed out that the descriptions could not possibly have been of a brain, as it is one of the first parts of a corpse to rot after death. But she said some forms of brain tumours can calcify after death and leave a hardened mass. One account described the brain as almost rattling around inside Poe's head. Pearl also looked up pictures of calcified tumours and discovered that some resembled shrunken brains.