In Depth: Edgar Allan Poe

Posted in Advanced Sophomores by D.T. Majesty on November 8th, 2007

Hey everyone, this is Dallas making my first blog post here.

Today we talked about the life of Ol’ Poe, and I mentioned a figure known as the “Poe Toaster”. Upon researching on wikipedia.org, I found some information I had known.

For those of you who don’t know anything about him, here’s a summary.

On January 19, 1949, Edgar Allan Poe’s gravesite in Baltimore, Maryland was visited by a “a black-clad figure, presumed to be male, with a silver-tipped cane”. He or she toasts Edgar with a glass of cognac and leaves the rest of the bottle behind, along with three roses which many have speculated to represent Edgar, his wife Virginia, and his mother-in-law, “Muddy”. The tradition has continued every year since then.

On August 17, 2007, Sam Porpora said in the Baltimore Sun that he started the tradition, however, the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore disputes this claim and his daughter says that he never mentioned it.

Weird, eh? But… that’s kind of Poe for you.

:Dallas