Sometimes you have to go with the obvious, and since Tuesday is the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birth and the Edgar Award nominations are slated for announcement later this morning, it made sense to devote this month's Dark Passages column to Mr. Poe and the various books and anthologies being published to commemorate the celebrated occasion:
Throughout January, the world is Edgar Allan Poe's stage, 200 years
after his birth on Jan. 19, 1809, and more than a century and a half
after his mysterious demise in a Baltimore gutter. He's credited as the
founding father of detective fiction, a master of the macabre, the
namesake inspiration for the mystery world's premier annual award, and
perhaps the first proper full-time freelance writer. This second son of
an acting couple might well feel a mix of puffed-up pride and
mystification at the celebratory atmosphere if he were alive to witness
it. He spent most of his life cobbling together a living out of the
scraps of poetic and prose publication, sporadically climbing the
mountain of literary acclaim (as with "The Raven" in 1845) only to
plunge anew into penury, a state he remained in until his death.
Poe's perilous financial state made him a man on the move, and two centuries later his itinerant status has a number of cities fighting for the honor to claim him as theirs and only theirs. Baltimore, by virtue of being his burial ground, has long had the inside track; after all, on every anniversary since 1949, a mysterious individual known as "The Poe Toaster" has left cognac and three red roses at Poe's graveside. But then a 2007 cover story in the Philadelphia City Paper depicted, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, the kidnapping of Poe's corpse to be spirited away to Philly, where Poe produced a great deal of his literary output. "We're Taking Poe Back," the article proclaimed, launching a long-running debate between its author, Edward Pettit, and Poe House curator Jeff Jerome that culminated in a debate this past Tuesday at the Philadelphia Free Library...
Poe's perilous financial state made him a man on the move, and two centuries later his itinerant status has a number of cities fighting for the honor to claim him as theirs and only theirs. Baltimore, by virtue of being his burial ground, has long had the inside track; after all, on every anniversary since 1949, a mysterious individual known as "The Poe Toaster" has left cognac and three red roses at Poe's graveside. But then a 2007 cover story in the Philadelphia City Paper depicted, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, the kidnapping of Poe's corpse to be spirited away to Philly, where Poe produced a great deal of his literary output. "We're Taking Poe Back," the article proclaimed, launching a long-running debate between its author, Edward Pettit, and Poe House curator Jeff Jerome that culminated in a debate this past Tuesday at the Philadelphia Free Library...
And as for the closing paragraph, well, that's the plan. We'll see how crowded the place is all day Tuesday...
UPDATE: Andrew Taylor discusses Poe's "DNA of Detection" at the BBC. A new Poe stamp is unveiled today. And the Washington Post, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal and NY Daily News shine a light on the bicentennial.
They should have a new category, graphic novel award.
Posted by: Phillip | January 15, 2009 at 11:07 PM
Poe belongs to Virginia, with Baltimore having serious claim to the title, due to history. I'm sorry Philly, you aren't even in the running (and I'm a native of PA). The Poe stamp is being issued in Richmond, Virginia but Poe is buried in Baltimore...perhaps we can share him.
Posted by: Patrick Balester | January 17, 2009 at 11:57 PM
It's nice to see someone showing some appreciation for Poe on his 200th... but, UGH, let's stop spreading rumors about his death! He did NOT die in a Baltimore gutter... He died in a Baltimore hospital - sorry if that's not Gothic enough for people! Anyway, I know it's not your fault, but still... :)
I do agree, by the way, that Poe should mostly identify with Virginia - and I live near Poe's birthplace in Boston, and previously lived near his former home in Philadelphia.
Posted by: Midnightdreary | January 28, 2009 at 12:24 AM
Poe belongs to the "Nation of Culture" that stands over all nations. At least that's what Hanns Heinz Ewers wrote in his stunning essay, "Edgar Allan Poe". Here for the first time is a new English translation of "Edgar Allan Poe by Germany's Edgar Allan Poe.
http://anarchistworld.com/hannsheinzewers/book/poe.htm
Posted by: Joe E Bandel | January 30, 2009 at 05:26 PM