Mysterious Fan Marks Poe's Birthday

[odin2]

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..

[Sitaram]

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.

[Bongitybongbong]

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

[den]

cool. I likeee.

[Shea]

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!

[Sitaram]

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

[Scheherazade]

Alcohol poisoning?

[Sitaram]

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."

[Basil]

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?

[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.

[Sitaram]

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

[den]

Charles Darwin also married his cousin Emma Wedgwood

[Sitaram]

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

[simon]

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?

[Sitaram]

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."