January 18, 2012
Tradition of drinking to celebrate the life of writer who died after collapsing in a bar comes to sad end
by Dennis Johnson
It’s one of the longest lasting vigils in literary history, and it’s about to end: Organizers have announced that this year’s vigil at the gravesite of Edgar Allan Poe on the occasion of his birthday—January 19th—will be the last.
As Sarah Brumfield details in an Associated Press wire story, every year dating back to perhaps the 1940s—no one’s really sure—”an anonymous man dressed in black with a white scarf and wide-brimmed hat” would arrive at Poe’s Baltimore gravesite at midnight on the 19th, raise a toast, and leave three roses and a bottle of cognac on the grave.
>But now, the man dubbed the “Poe Toaster” has failed to appear for two years in a row, and so fans who usually observed the ritual from the nearby Poe House and Museum have announced this year’s vigil will be the final observance of the tradition.
According to the report,
Poe House and Museum curator Jeff Jerome, who has kept watch for the “Poe Toaster” since 1978, believes that it’s Poe’s suffering and his lifelong dream to be a poet that people still relate to. While the midnight tribute has a touch of the theatrical, it’s also an honest expression, Mr. Jerome said. Wherever he travels in the world, he said when people find out what he does, they want to know whether the “Poe Toaster” is real.
“It’s such an innocent, such a touching tribute,” Mr. Jerome said.
Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.
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4 Comments
Despite your attention-grabbing headline, Poe didn’t die after collapsing in a bar. Poe was sitting at a polling place (which happened to be a tavern) on Election Day – how he got there is unclear. A friend and family member saw he was ill and had him taken to the hospital (which shouldn’t sound unusual); the doctor there said there was no influence of alcohol.
I love the accompanying picture!
Glad you like the drawing. Poe seems to have inspired some really great portraits.
As for the headline, though … There is in fact no consensus on Poe’s demise — not where he was found, not when, and not how or why he died. Everything from alcohol to heart failure and lots of illnesses in between have been postulated. Beatings by robbers has been suspected (Poe supposedly had a lot of money on him). There is even a book propounding the idea that he was murdered by his in-laws. But in point of fact no one knows why he even in Baltimore. Beyond a few people he visited who said he was clearly intoxicated, there is pretty much zero evidence to know what he did, or what happened to him, while he was there.
Most of the theories of his death have to do with alcohol — which is why, of course, the “Poe Toaster” raised a glass to him at his gravesite every year — but the thing is, they’re theories. We just don’t know and probably never will.
For the headline, I’m talking about the theory — stated as fact — in the AP article I’m talking about. So in this instance your beef is with them. You should know this, though: most accounts say the polling place you mention was a tavern.
– Dennis Johnson
Poe was born on JANUARAY 19, not April 19 as your article states.
Right you are. Thanks for the correction. — DJ