Readers of Edgar Allan Poe's tales--just think of --may comfort themselves with the notion that Poe must have exaggerated: surely people of the 1800s could not have been at risk of being buried alive? But such stories filled medical journals as well as fiction, and fear in the populace was high. It was speculated, from the number of skeletons found in horrific, contorted positions inside their coffins, that ten out of every one hundred people were buried before they were dead. With over fifty illustrations, explores the medicine, folklore, history, and literature of Europe and the United States to uncover why such fears arose and whether they were warranted.