Mysterious Fan Marks Poe's Birthday

By KASEY JONES, Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE - The mystery man was dressed for the cold rather than tradition, and some spectators were not quite as respectful as in years past. But for the 56th year, a man stole into a locked graveyard early on Edgar Allan Poe's birthday and placed three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac on the writer's grave.

Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, who has seen the mysterious visitor every Jan. 19 since 1976, gathered with about 20 people Tuesday night to glimpse the ritual.


"It was absolutely frigid," Jerome said of the sub-20 degree temperature.


No one, not even Jerome, knows the identity of the so-called "Poe Toaster." The visit was first documented in 1949, a century after Poe's death.


This year, the visitor arrived at 1:10 a.m. in a heavy coat and obscured his face with a black pullover, Jerome said. He was not wearing the traditional white scarf and black hat.


"He put the roses and cognac at the base of Poe's grave and put his hand on top of the (tomb) stone. He paused and put his head down," the museum curator said. He left after about five minutes, Jerome said.


The visitor's three roses are believed to honor Poe, his mother-in-law and his wife, all of whom are buried in the graveyard. The significance of the cognac is unknown.


People who stand vigil usually respect the visitor's desire for anonymity, which, along with the visitor's quick moves and the cover of darkness, have kept his secret well.


But this time, some spectators "created a nuisance," Jerome said. Some entered the locked cemetery; others confronted Jerome after the stranger had departed and demanded that he reveal his identity.


For decades, a frail figure made the visit to Poe's grave. But in 1993 the original visitor left a cryptic note saying, "The torch will be passed." A later note said the man, who apparently died in 1998, had passed the tradition on to his sons.


Poe, who wrote poems and horror stories such as "The Raven" and "The Telltale Heart," died Oct. 7, 1849 in Baltimore at the age of 40 after collapsing in a tavern.


Bethany Dinger, 32, first became fascinated with the writer while doing volunteer work at the Poe House in high school. Wednesday was her third time watching the ritual.


"It's always amazing — you know it's going to happen and then it's just wow, he's here," she said. "We're just so in the moment — there's no talking" while the visitor pays homage.News link..

Great story! Fascinating! Thanks for posting. My father was born in New Haven CT, and lived there until the end of the 1980s (now he is a very healthy active age 88 in Florida). From his teenage years he had three very close life-long friends. They were drinking buddies. One of the four died, and was buried in a rather historic cemetary in New Haven. Each year, on the anniversary of their friend's death, my father and the remaining two friends would come to the cemetary with a bottle of their late friends favorite scotch. They would pour some scotch on the grave, and drink toasts with the rest, and laugh and tell jokes and reminisce. One year, a young woman artist was sketching nearby. My father said she was quite shocked to see their "ritual" and most likely thought them rather odd.

That's one of the tradition that I knew about for a long time but thanks for letting me see this again.

:D cool. I likeee.

I took a Poe and Hawthorne class last year and my intructor went to that ritual once. She managed to save a petal from one of the flowers.

Evidently, the people who demand the identity of the stranger have never read any of Poe's works. I find them very disrespectful.

I think that congac was somehow involved in Poe's death but I can't really remember. The cause of his death was always somewhat of a mystery.

Thanks for sharing the article!

I believe I read, the other day, that Poe collapsed in a tavern, and died shortly thereafter (at an early age).

Alcohol poisoning?

In all likelihood, there was no real causal relationship between death in the tavern and alcohol poisoning... he was probably due to have a stroke or heart attack, or something similar, and it just happened while he was in the tavern. Had he been strolling throught the park, and had a pidgeon pooped upon his cranium, and had he then expired, we should not draw any hasty conclusions. As Aristotle said in the Physics, "One swallow does not make a Spring."

Well, it's certainly been the subject of much research and scholarly study:

http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm

Pretty interesting theories (and a lot of them)

*edit* This is a brief excerpt from Hart Crane's poem "The Bridge"--Crane evidently bought into the "coop" theory:

And, why do I often meet your visage here,
Your eyes like agate lanterns - on and on
Below the toothpaste and the dandruff ads?
- And did their riding eyes right through your side,
And did their eyes like unwashed plasters ride?
And Death, aloft, - gigantically down
Probing through you - toward me, O evermore!
And when they dragged your retching flesh,
Your trembling hands that night through Baltimore -
That last night on the ballot rounds, did you
Shaking, did you deny the ticket, Poe?

Is there truth to poe's marriage to his cousin? She was young, as they all were in that time, but i think she died of tb and then he wrote a story about her.

Einstein married his cousin..... such things were more accepted in other times/ages, cultures

Charles Darwin also married his cousin Emma Wedgwood :goof:

And of course, in the spirit of good taste, we shall all avoid making off-color puns involving the name "Wedgwood."

Hmm some of us weren't thinking of any.

Didn't he virtually drink himself out of health from sheer depression? Afterall didn't three women he knew die of consumption? Can people still get consumption?

I believe consumption was the old term for tuberculosis, though I dont have time to make certain with google. I was once talking with someone who worked in an urban information center on STD (sexually transmitted diseases) and he told me "You would be surprised to know that one of the leading STD is tuberculosis. One must be very close to the face of an infected person to contract it."

Wow I didn't know tuberculosis was a sexually transmitted disease, I thought it was like pneumonia.

Here is a google.com URL "sampling" of links which all mention STD and TB in "the same breath". And the first link confirms that TB of today was the consumption of years ago.

Think of how many novels are related to TB (well at least, Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann)

ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020417.html


labtestsonline.org/understanding/conditions/tuberculosis.html

In the U.S., there are now about 10 to 15 million people with latent TB infection. Active tuberculosis was thought to be all but eradicated until a resurgence in new cases in the early 1990?s. The majority of these new cases were among those living in overcrowded or confined populations such as correctional facilities, nursing homes, and schools. The most vulnerable were those who were medically underserved or had diseases and conditions that weakened their immune systems, such as: the homeless, alcoholics, intravenous drug users, those with HIV or AIDS, and those with chronic kidney or liver diseases. Often these new cases were multi-drug resistant (MDR), making them more difficult to treat. While the numbers of new cases of active TB have again declined in the U.S. due to constant vigilance by the medical community, tuberculosis remains a significant national and global public health concern.

dhs.state.or.us/publichealth/hst/about.cfm

The HIV/Sexually Transmitted Disease/Tuberculosis (HST) Program operates as a part of the Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology in the Oregon Department of Human Services. There are five sections within HST: Data and Analysis, HIV Client Services, HIV Community Prevention, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), and Tuberculosis (TB).



msf.org/content/page.cfm?articleid=F4438309-F153-4D13-8A8E3D1D0BEE4C6B

MSF also set up an STD information center in the town of Osh targeting the general population and groups at risk; and developed a program to treat and refer previously excluded sex workers and their children. Two local NGOs were enabled to take these over when MSF withdrew from Kyrgyzstan in December 2001. Public health has suffered in Kazakhstan since it gained independence in 1991. Tuberculosis (TB) was declared a national disaster in 1998. Many cases are resistant to conventional treatment.

doh.state.fl.us/chdCitrus/hiv-aids-tb.htm

Tuberculosis is not an std, it is airborne, mostly in poor areas, even in the Americas and third world countries. Its terms are consumption (it takes over the lungs), white plague, Hippocrates called it phthisis. There were signs of tb in Egyptian mummies. I believe it's a threat now since the tsunami. In 1926, it was one step worse than cancer. They used to collapse lungs to let them rest, pneumothorax procedure. The people diagnosed were sent to sanitariums, to rest (used to be only means with which to get better). I believe people were treated like lepers (sp?) no one wanted to get it. Streptomycin was the antibiotic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lhaeber

I believe people were treated like lepers (sp?) no one wanted to get it.

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I may be starting a myth, but I think I can recall a speaker once saying that because of the social treatment of people with tb, embrodery began showing up on the edge of handkerchiefs. People with tb tend to cough up blood and so would use needlework to camoflauge the stains that way less people would know.

I think I heard that for somewhere.

Yes, Shea, kind of similar to syphillus (again, I don't know the spelling) when high collars and long, frilly sleeves would be worn (wigs as well) would be worn to hide the sores, the scars, etc.

btw
i don't think that Sitaram was implying that TB's an STD, rather that it comes under that umbrella in one of Oregon's health and human services programs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sitaram

The HIV/Sexually Transmitted Disease/Tuberculosis (HST) Program operates as a part of the Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology in the Oregon Department of Human Services.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by lhaeber

Is there truth to poe's marriage to his cousin? She was young, as they all were in that time, but i think she died of tb and then he wrote a story about her.

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Yes.. a 14 yo kid.

Quote:

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Posted by Sitaram: As Aristotle said in the Physics, "One swallow does not make a Spring."

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Are you reffering that to alcohol? If yes, then Poe didn't just take a swallow, He did had a serious alcohol problem wich lead his name not included to Allan's will when he died.