Dear Adult Readers–Be Forewarned!
This news blog post may be too scary for some children or inappropriate for anyone presently or recently dealing with the death of a loved one. Otherwise, in my opinion, it is perfect for Halloween! Read at your own risk or pleasure, depending on your circumstances, and preferably by candlelight or the glow of a jack-o’-lantern.
“It may be asserted, without hesitation, that no event is so terribly well adapted to inspire the supremeness of bodily and of mental distress, as is burial before death . . . that our hopeless portion is that of the really dead — these considerations, I say, carry into the heart, which still palpitates, a degree of appalling and intolerable horror from which the most daring imagination must recoil.” –excerpted from “The Premature Burial,” by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849).
In “The Premature Burial” (1844), one of my favorite Poe short stories, the Master of the Macabre takes up the topic of taphephobia (taff-uh-FO-be-uh): the fear of being buried alive! I will spare you the gruesome details, examples, and potential sepulcher escapes he so cleverly devised for his story. Because on Halloween night, between trips to the door to pass out candy for warding off evil spirits, you might want to read the story for yourselves HERE.
In addition, you can watch on Tubi for free Roger Corman‘s atmospheric 1962 companion film (1 hour, 20 minutes), starring Hollywood’s Ray Milland and England’s Hazel Court, HERE.
And if you read this post before October 28, I hope you will sign up HERE to join Poe fans, including me, for “Poe Unplugged: ‘The Premature Burial.'” That evening, we will discuss via Zoom Poe’s story, hosted by The Six Degrees of Poe bloggers, Carmen Bouldin and Jeanie Smith. The terrifying fun begins at 5:00 pm, PT.
The term taphephobia comes from the Greek taphe and taphos, meaning burial, grave, tomb; and from the Latin phobia, meaning fear of something.
We see the root in words like epitaph (an inscription on a tomb), cenotaph (a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person whose body is elsewhere), and bibliotaph (one who hides away or hoards books–I might represent that term).
Perhaps as no surprise to most, Poe was taphephobic. Check out scholar Ed Simon‘s brilliant LitHub article from October 8, 2025: “To Haunt and Be Haunted: On the Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe.” Simon graphically explores, sense by sense, awakening in terror six-feet-under, then in connection with Poe’s works. It is not for the faint of heart.
We know that Poe was not inhumed alive following his death in 1849. But in 1875, when his remains were exhumed for reburial in a more dignified resting place, careless gravediggers dropped his deteriorated wooden coffin. It splintered apart, which contributed to the dark rumor that he must have attempted to claw his way out after a premature burial! All rumors.
Indeed, taphephobia gripped many in the nineteenth century, especially the cataleptic, who only appeared to be dead, and before the practice of embalming prevailed. Two of Poe’s contemporaries, first, composer Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849) requested that his heart be cut out once he was pronounced dead, not just so it could be buried in his native Poland, but to ensure he had truly died pre-burial; and second, Russian writer Nikolai Gogol (1809 – 1852), specified in his will that he “not be buried until his body showed visible signs of putrefaction.” Such Will additions did occur. Hold your nose!
Little wonder, then, that the taphephobic Poe took up the theme in some of his other works, too, such as “Berenice” (1835), “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839), “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843), and “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846). Poe wrote, “The boundaries which divide Life and Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who can say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” Echoes of taphephobia.
And it so happens that a premature burial occurs (though 300 years ago) in my Book 7, Macadamia Street: Hidden Skeleton. But it is still a kid-friendly, present-day pirate story. I promise.
So, Readers, get another morbid clue. If as Ed Simon states in his article above, “Fundamentally, taphephobia concerns the stubborn endurance of that which we thought we’d buried . . . ghost stories about being haunted and being the haunting,” I say, let’s hear it for cremation. Happy Halloween to those who celebrate!
(Image Credits: Top–Mojo_Maniac; Bottom–in the public domain free WikiImages, both from pixabay.com)
