Celebrating Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday

BALTIMORE

Jan. 17, 7 p.m. — Birthday celebration with a Poe tribute performed by actor John Astin, a theatrical performance of Poe's "Hop Frog," a musical tribute to Poe by soloist Paula McCabe, and a sparkling cider toast to Poe led by Astin and Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

Jan. 18, 4:30 p.m. — Birthday celebration with a Poe tribute performed by actor John Astin, a theatrical performance of "Some Words with a Mummy," a musical tribute to Poe by soloist Paula McCabe, a raffle for a cake in the shape of the Poe Monument designed by Duff Goldman of TV's "Ace of Cakes," and a sparkling cider toast to Poe led by Astin and Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

Jan. 19, 10 a.m. — Launch of "Edgar Allan Poe: More than a Poet," a new exhibit at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St.

Jan. 19, 10 a.m. — "Edgar Allan Poe Birthday Festival" with tours of the catacombs at Westminster Burying Ground, theatrical readings of "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee," a ghost hunt with author Vince Wilson and an Edgar Allan Poe look-alike contest. Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

Jan. 19, time unknown — Appearance of the "Poe Toaster," Westminster Burying Ground, 519 W. Fayette St.

Jan. 31, 7 p.m. — Repeat of Poe birthday celebration, Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

Feb. 1, 4:30 p.m. — Repeat of Poe birthday celebration, Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

March 27, time TBA — Wine tasting inspired by "The Cask of Amontillado" and other Poe stories, catacombs of Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

June 13, time TBA — Performance of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and discourse on the history of Westminster Burying Ground and the people buried there, Westminster Burying Ground, 519 W. Fayette St.

Sept. 21-Oct. 4 — Performances of one-man show "POE in Person" by actor David Keltz in a two-week residency at the Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St.

October, date TBA — Opening of "Art of Darkness: Inspired by Poe," a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr.

Oct. 7, noon — Public viewing of a replica of Poe's body, Poe House and Museum, 203 N. Amity St.

Oct. 7, midnight — Candlelight vigil at Poe's grave with readings of Poe's work, Westminster Burying Ground, 519 W. Fayette St.

Oct. 10, noon — Re-enactment of Poe's funeral service, with a horse-drawn hearse bringing a replica of his body from his home to Westminster Hall and eulogies delivered by actors playing both people who knew Poe and artists inspired by him, Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

Oct. 10, 4:30 p.m. — Repeat of Poe funeral service, Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St.

November, date, time and location TBA — Attorneys, a judge and a jury stage a mock trial inspired by Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart."
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BOSTON

Jan. 15, 7:30 p.m. — Program with lectures by writers Matthew Pearl and Scott Peeples, reading of Poe passages, performance of creative work by BC students and a Poe birthday cake, Devlin Hall 101, Boston College, Chestnut Hill Campus.

Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m. — Screening of film "The Last Days of the Raven," followed by Q&A with co-director, screenwriter and star Brent Fidler, Devlin Hall 101, Boston College, Chestnut Hill Campus.
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NEW YORK

Jan. 18, 1 p.m. — Birthday celebration with actor Tristan Laurence performing as Poe at the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, 2640 Grand Concourse, Bronx, N.Y.
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PHILADELPHIA

Jan. 10, time TBA — Actor David Keltz performs as Poe with park ranger Helen McKenna-Uff as his fiancee, Helen Whitman, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St.

Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m. — "Great Poe Debate" between Poe scholars Jeff Jerome of Baltimore, Paul Lewis of Boston and Edward Pettit of Philadelphia about what city has the best claim on Poe's legacy, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St.

Jan. 16, 6 p.m. — Friends of Poe bicentennial party with park rangers Paul Campbell and Helen McKenna-Uff performing an original piece, "Doppelganger Poes," and a wine tasting of vintages mentioned in Poe's works. German Society, 7th and Spring Garden streets.

Jan. 17, 2 p.m. — Official opening of new Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site exhibits, with a talk by Daniel Hoffman, poet and Poe scholar, 532 N. 7th St.

March 28, 2 p.m. — Scholar David Reynolds discusses "Poe in his Times" and signs copies of his new book "Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, 532 N. 7th St.

April 3, 2 p.m. — UCLA professor and cultural historian Karen Halttunen discusses her book "Murder Most Foul," about how popular tastes were reflected in Poe's Gothic horror stories, Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, 532 N. 7th St.

May 23, 2 p.m. — Tony McGowan, an English professor at the United States Military Academy, speaks about Poe's military experience and how it influenced his writing, Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, 532 N. 7th St.

Oct. 8-11 — The Poe Studies Association's Third International Edgar Allan Poe Conference, Hyatt Regency at Penns Landing

RICHMOND, Va.

Jan. 16, 11 a.m. — First issue ceremony for the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe commemorative stamp, Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad St.

Jan. 16, 6 p.m. — Talk by Michael J. Deas, designer of the Poe stamp and author of "The Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe," at St. John's Church, the burial place of Poe's mother, Eliza Poe, 2401 E. Broad St.

Jan. 17, 1 p.m. — "Quest for the Gold Bug: A Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe," an event in which participants walk the streets of Richmond guided by mysterious clues. For information, visit http://ravenchase.com

Jan. 19, 12:01 a.m. — Poe's 24-Hour 200th Birthday Bash, with poetry readings, late-night museum tours, candlelight vigil, birthday cake and opening of new exhibit, "Poe Face to Face: Early Portraits of Edgar Allan Poe," Edgar Allan Poe Museum, 1914-16 E. Main St.

Jan. 19, 7 p.m. — Candlelight walking tour from St. John's Church to Poe Museum, with a Poe-inspired theatrical performance, visits to Poe sites, performance of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and cocktail hour, beginning at St. John's Church, 2401 E. Broad St.

June 25 — Opening of new exhibit, "Ratiocination: Poe the Detective," Edgar Allan Poe Museum, 1914-16 E. Main St.

July 3, 7 p.m. — Opening reception for new exhibit, "Poe's Women," Richmond Public Library, Main Branch, 101 East Franklin St.

July 18, 9 a.m. — Opening of new exhibit, "Poe: Man, Myth or Monster," Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St.

Cities battle over Poe legacy

By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer


BALTIMORE - Pick a major East Coast city at random, and you're likely to find a 200th birthday celebration for Edgar Allan Poe.

The peripatetic Poe — author of "The Raven," ''The Tell-Tale Heart" and other poems and tales of the macabre — was born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809. He was raised largely in Richmond, Va. As an adult, he migrated between Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.

Befitting his difficulty establishing roots, Poe will be feted at birthday parties in those five cities in January. Events will continue throughout the year — including new museum exhibits, performances and readings of Poe's work, academic conferences and, in Baltimore, a reenactment of his funeral that is sure to draw more mourners than the hasty burial itself.

The push to honor Poe dovetails with an escalating debate about the places that were most important to the author's life and work. Fans of Poe, then, can be forgiven if they feel the need to sit and ponder, weak and weary, where best to pay tribute to the author.

"Every city has its claim to fame with Poe," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore.

Baltimore, where Poe died in 1849 under mysterious circumstances, has his grave and a tiny rowhouse he lived in during his mid-20s. There are also houses in Philadelphia, where Poe wrote some of his best-known stories, and New York, where he enjoyed his greatest literary success. Richmond has the definitive Poe museum. Boston doesn't have much besides a plaque near his place of birth, but an enthusiastic English professor thinks the city should — and will — do more.

For promoting Poe, no city can compete with Baltimore, which named its football team the Ravens in his honor. It also has the Poe birthday tradition that fascinates the public — each year, a mysterious visitor leaves a half-full bottle of cognac and three red roses at his original gravesite.

In 1875, Poe's remains were moved to a more prominent spot in the same cemetery, Westminster Burying Ground, alongside his aunt, Maria Clemm. The remains of his wife, Virginia — who was also Maria's daughter — were reburied there ten years later.

There Poe's bones will stay, despite a tongue-in-cheek plea by Philadelphia-based Poe scholar Edward Pettit to dig up the author's remains and rebury them in the City of Brotherly Love, where he wrote many of his best stories, including "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum."

Pettit's immodest proposal, first aired in a 2007 article in the Philadelphia City Paper, was the opening salvo in what he calls the "Poe Wars."

"I'm not crazy. I've never thought that the actual body of Poe was going to be moved," Pettit said. "But that's the metaphor. Philadelphia deserves the bones of Poe in the sense that it deserves to be the standard-bearer of the Poe legacy."

Whether Poe's bones should be moved is open for debate, of course, and on Jan. 13 at the Philadelphia Free Library, Pettit, Jerome and Paul Lewis, an English professor at Boston College, will do just that. Their scholarly showdown is billed as "The Great Poe Debate."

"I don't really have to prepare," Jerome boasted, noting that Baltimore has been the guardian of Poe's legacy since the 1875 dedication of his new grave, which drew hundreds of people, including Walt Whitman.

Boston's claim on Poe is much shakier — Poe left there when he was a few months old and, as an adult, he despised the city and its literary tradition — but Lewis tries to compensate with rhetorical enthusiasm.

"He is arguably — I'm not saying everyone would accept this — the most influential writer who was ever born in Boston, and we should celebrate it," Lewis said.

New York and Richmond have tried to stay above the fray — but they'll take their shots if asked. Their claims are arguably just as strong.

"The work that he did here in New York kind of stands on its own," said Anthony Green, education director of the Bronx Historical Society, who cited "The Raven," ''The Bells" and "The Cask of Amontillado." ''We can let the other cities squabble about it. To us, it's not really a competition."

As for Richmond, Poe described himself as a Virginian and lived there longer than anywhere else. Said Katarina M. Spears, executive director of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum: "We kind of arrogantly feel like it's only if you're really insecure about your connection to him that you need to be actively competing."

Nothing can compete, though, with the mystery and intrigue of the man known only as the "Poe Toaster," and while his annual birthday tribute isn't listed among Baltimore's official bicentennial events, it figures to draw hundreds of people who will try — unsuccessfully, if history is any guide — to get a look at him.

Poe's original gravesite can't be seen from the street, and the toaster always shows up when the cemetery is closed, typically in the wee hours of the morning. Jerome will be inside Westminster Hall, the former church adjacent to the cemetery, with a few invited guests. He won't allow the public or the news media into the building.

Jerome insists he doesn't know the toaster's identity and does nothing to aid or abet him. He tries to be respectful of the tribute, and he hopes the crowd that typically gathers outside the cemetery will do the same.

"I'm a nervous wreck," he said.

Pettit was part of the crowd last January and caught a fleeting glimpse of the toaster as he entered the cemetery. He did not see how the man left. He expects the toaster to try to dupe the throng by showing up earlier or later than usual.

"I think it's going to be a mob scene there," Pettit said. "I don't know how he's going to get in."

There will be plenty of officially sanctioned events in Baltimore and elsewhere. A three-day birthday celebration is scheduled for Westminster Hall. Among the highlights: A tribute to Poe and his work performed by John Astin, best known as Gomez Addams on the 1960s "Addams Family" TV series.

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond will be open for 24 hours straight on Poe's birthday. In Philadelphia, the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site will reopen with new exhibits after a renovation. The Bronx County Historical Society plans to host a party on the grounds of the Poe Cottage in the Bronx, N.Y. And at Boston College, Lewis has arranged for lectures by scholars and a screening of a new feature film inspired by Poe's life.

In October, Baltimore will mark the 160th anniversary of the author's death by inviting the public to the Poe House to view a replica of his body. The body will then be taken by horse-drawn carriage to Westminster Hall, giving Poe the proper funeral he never had.

For the diehard Poe enthusiasts, the tributes won't end with the bicentennial year. Jerome insists that Baltimore will continue to take the lead.

"When the bicentennial's over," he said, "all these cities are going to be dropping Poe like an empty bottle of amontillado."

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On the Net:

Baltimore: http://poebicentennial.com/

Baltimore: http://www.nevermore2009.com/

Boston: http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/english/poe2009.html

New York: http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/

Philadelphia: http://www.nps.gov/edal/

Richmond: http://www.poe200th.com/