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Episode 429 - The Premature Burial (Patreon)

Published:
2018-11-24 23:19:32
Edited:
2024-12-12 19:03:32
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

This week, we’re digging on The Premature Burial by Mr. Poe!

Special thanks to reader Mike Hughes! Check him out at Top Story Weekly!

Next up: a bonus episode on Stan Lee

Comments

Necropolis Railway

Along with the other three stories this month, I've had a deep love of this piece going back to childhood. (Thanks for the nostalgia hits, guys!) I think a way to appreciate it more, maybe, is to look at it as a semi-fictional exposé essay rather than as a straight work of fiction-- and on that basis, it's great. It's true that the vignette examples Poe provides are probably not at all based in fact, but neither were a lot of other incidents that were reported during the time of the great buried-alive hysteria (which apparently lasted until the end of the 19th century-- check out this article: <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/31-days-of-halloween-premature-burial" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/31-days-of-halloween-premature-burial</a> ). The examples do not need to be true, though, to inspire increasing terror; they only need to be plausible as situations that *could* happen-- which, at least for a time with no iron-clad means of verifying death, they are. In any case, many of the original Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper readers must have believed that this work, including the narrator's tale, was nonfiction, since they had no reason to believe otherwise. We know that Poe was fond of such hoaxes ("The Balloon-Hoax," originally titled "THE ATLANTIC CROSSED IN THREE DAYS!" and presented by Poe as verified fact, being the most notorious example of this). I like to try to put myself in that context when reading it.

Jeff C. Carter

I have been inspired to compose a haiku Buried premature in water not earth, gentle with those bellows please

NoSignal

Is it just me or did “Kill Bill” destroy the buried alive trope?

Matthew Wiles

The guys had a blast talking about gathering hair from a buried corpse in this episode, but hair keepsakes were a big thing in Poe's time. Making jewelry (either containing hair or literally OUT of hair) was a widely accepted part of the mourning process, which was much more formal than it is today. Google "Victorian hair jewelry" and you'll see. Americans were into it as well. Lincoln received lots of letters with requests for his hair. Stonewall Jackson's beard was clipped after his death and now it's part of a wreath decorating the house he lived in when he taught at VMI before the war. I find it creepy, especially in our day and age where clipping hair from a corpse as a keepsake seems macabre, but it was common in Poe's day and age.

Alan Ricks

The guy digging up his beloved for a memento isn’t that weird for people in Florida. Of course, you may reply. Everyone in Florida is bizarre. Well, yes but Carl Tanzler is our claim to undead fame. Carl Tanzler, or sometimes Count Carl von Cosel (February 8, 1877 – July 3, 1952), was a German-born radiology technologist at the Marine-Hospital Service in Key West, Florida. He developed an obsession for a young Cuban-American tuberculosis patient, Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos (July 31, 1909 – October 25, 1931), that carried on well after the disease had caused her death. In 1933, almost two years after her death, Tanzler removed Hoyos' body from its tomb, and lived with the corpse at his home for seven years until its discovery by Hoyos' relatives and authorities in 1940. Missed in History did a great podcast on him. <a href="https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/carl-tanzler.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/carl-tanzler.htm</a>

Jon Maness

How you did not make an "I'm on a Boat" reference is beyond me.

Forrest Rush

It's story endings like this that almost make feel more forgiving towards writers of later seasons of 24 (Kim and the cougar) and the final seasons of Lost and Battlestar Galactica. Almost.

Steve

Chris keeps saying bum. He is ours now.

Steve

Oh, it's kind of the opposite of my boat train story.

Allison Albright

The scariest thing in this story is every doctor or medical procedure that gets mentioned. I say that as a claustrophobe.

Noah Soudrette

According to Jan Bondeson's book "Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear," there has never been a confirmed case of someone being buried alive. The book mainly details the lengths people went to trying to avoid this perceived fate. The only scientifically reliable way to verify death without a shadow of a doubt was to await for putrefaction to set in. Ironically, the health hazards this posed, particularly around urban "waiting mortuaries" certainly killed more than were "saved" by the practice.

Jason Thompson

I enjoyed these Poe stories much more than I expected! Somehow I'd forgotten how he good he was, and y'all did a great job.

Rafe Ball

HENRY: I hearby call this weekly meeting of The Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive to order. Good to see you, Percy - and you, James. No Lawrence or Richard today, oh, good- RICHARD: Hey guys, sorry we’re late! HENRY: Oh God. What have you- LARRY: Whilst you guys have been playing around with your “bells on strings” and “openable coffins” we’ve been keeping it real - we rescued Sir Bernard here from being buried alive! PERCY: Good Lord, man, that’s a corpse! HENRY: Not again... RICHARD: No, no, no - he’s alive! Look, he’s waving! JAMES: That’s you waving - you’ve tied his pulseless wrist to your own, you ghouls! PERCY: I think I’m going to be sick... JAMES: And it’s the 1800s - where did you get sunglasses?

Rafe Ball

I know you’ve done the bonus content for this month, but how about a future Poevember bonus follow-up on the Roger Corman ‘Poe Cycle’ of film adaptations? I remember watching Corman’s adaptation of this story (though it might be more accurate to call it ‘inspired by’ as it doesn’t exactly follow the plot of Poe’s tale to the letter) with my parents, and whilst watching the scene where all the main character’s escape mechanisms built into his tomb fail, my mother casually mentioned that my Uncle John was so scared of being buried alive that he had legal documents drawn up stating he had to be certified dead by two independent doctors before he was buried.

MonsterTalk

It does make you wonder why they didn't just follow the Schrute (from The Office) family tradition and empty both barrels of a scatter-gun into the corpse as part of the funeral procession. I was never clear as to whether Poe was making all these stories up to sell the ending? "Ooh! I've got a great idea for a story but it's too short... but what if I padded it out with a bunch of anecdotes to set the scene?" Something like that. I guess I should see if there is an annotated edition of his work that I could add to my collections. Or I guess I could check Wikipedia. But where's the fun in that?

Sam Brenden-Rohde

Today I was listening to Big Boi's new playlist 'Timeless Classics' on Spotify. Out of nowhere, I am surprised to hear Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush come blasting in to my headphones. I already know most of the lyrics thanks to a particularly brilliant performance by Chris despite never hearing the song before. I got a hearty laugh out of all of this. Thank you guys for being so wonderful.

Eric S. Vallone, M.D.

All the Poe I have read, and I NEVER knew the ending to this tale. I guess I either forgot, or only read the beginning.

Shana Carter

If you wanted more information about the lengths people went to prevent premature burial in convenient audio form, the Stuff You Missed in History podcast did an episode on safety coffins and waiting mortuaries! <a href="https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/symhc-live-not-dead-yet-safety-coffins-and-waiting-mortuaries.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/symhc-live-not-dead-yet-safety-coffins-and-waiting-mortuaries.htm</a>