The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library

CHAPTER 10

Expert Opinion

The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life and of the nineteenth century in general. I am convinced that every thing is wrong. Besides, I am anxious to know who will be President in 2045. As soon, therefore, as I have a shave and a cup of coffee, I shall just step over to Ponnonner’s and get embalmed for a couple of hundred years.

—Edgar Allan Poe, “Some Words with a Mummy,”

Broadway Journal, 1845