'Poe toaster' visits writer's grave for 58th year

[IRiSHMaFIA]

A bottle of cognac and a rose were left at Edgar
Allen Poe's grave in Baltimore, Maryland, by the mysterious 'Poe toaster.'


For the 58th straight year, a mysterious visitor left birthday cognac and roses at Edgar Allan Poe's grave Friday, and he was watched by more onlookers than ever, a faithful viewer said.

Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, said 55 people braved a chilly morning to glimpse the annual ritual of the mysterious visitor known as the Poe toaster.

"If I were the Poe toaster, and I saw and heard that crowd, I wouldn't show up," Jerome said before the ceremony.

As in years past, the visitor placed a half-empty bottle of cognac and three red roses at the grave on Poe's birthday, Jerome said.

Once it realized who he was, the crowd rushed to one of the cemetery's entrances to get a glimpse, and the toaster slipped out another way, Jerome said.

He said this year's crowd was large but well behaved, unlike last year when watchers tried to interfere with the tribute.

Jerome said he would no longer describe the visitor or what he was wearing because of last year's unruly spectators.

One onlooker Friday dressed up to look like the Poe toaster had in a previous year, said Jerome, who has seen the mystery visitor every January 19 since 1976.

Starting in 1949, a frail figure made the visit to Poe's grave. 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 handed the tradition on to his sons.

Poe, who wrote poems and horror stories such as "The Raven" and "The Telltale Heart," was born in Boston and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He died October 7, 1849, in Baltimore at the age of 40 after collapsing in a tavern.

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I've always enjoyed Edgar Allen Poe's writings and heard about this years ago. I was under the impression it was always a lady dressed in black that showed up at his grave each year on the anniversary of his death, so this story surprised me.

It's a really cool thing to do, and I use to think it was almost romantic ..but now that it's known to be a man doing it that kind of deadened the romance end of it!

[Marcella-FL]

I think it is kind of sad that people actually try to interfere with the person doing it. I have been to the Poe House in Richmond and met the curator and let me just say he is a rabid Poe fan. He is VERY protective of the Toaster and I can just imagine how furious he gets when people try to mess with it!