Poe manuscript auctioned for $300,000

A copy of Poe's poem "The Conqueror Worm," hand-written and signed by the author, sold for $300,000 Saturday -- about $280,000 more than the New England auction house handling it had expected, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The yellowed document was purchased by an anonymous collector, SouthCoastToday.com reported, who has 10 days to verify its authenticity before the sale is final. It had been owned by a Rhode Island family since 1920, and was offered for auction by Marion Antique Auctions in Marion, Mass.

"I told them it was a good object and we would feature it in our summer auction," Marion Antique Shop owner Frank McNamee told South Coast Today. He then added, in one of the year's major understatements, "I thought it was going to do really well."

"The Conqueror Worm," which speaks to the inevitability of death, was first published in 1843-- six years before Poe died, under circumstances never fully explained, in a Baltimore hospital.