Poe grave visitor returns for 58th time

[maryfield48]

I learnt of this tradition earlier this year, while laid up at home recovering from surgery. I think it's cool that in this media age, when the public seemingly has to know everything about everyone, this mysterious tradition can carry on, without any serious effort to find out who is doing it, what his motivation is, what his childhood was like etc., etc, ad nauseam.

[ QUOTE ]
BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- 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.

[/ QUOTE ]

[guids]

That is pretty neat, Im not into reading fiction, except Poe, he is probably the only fiction writer I have on my bookshelves.

[lippy]

I don't know why the idea of annually leaving alcohol and roses on a dead poet's grave seems so neat to me.

[guids]

I think neat is teh wrong word, but it gives me some hope that the world is still pretty mysterious and romantic. can you tell Ive been smoking?

[Golden_Rhino]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know why the idea of annually leaving alcohol and roses on a dead poet's grave seems so neat to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's probably because you are jealous that you aren't passionate about something, even if it's something weird like visiting a total stranger's grave.

[XXXNoahXXX]

I'm sure it will eventually be [censored] up by people that want to impersonate the visitor, get his identity by following him, etc.

I really, really like this story however.

[canis582]

[ QUOTE ]
I think neat is teh wrong word, but it gives me some hope that the world is still pretty mysterious and romantic. can you tell Ive been smoking?

[/ QUOTE ]

Stick to helping me get laid.

[lippy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know why the idea of annually leaving alcohol and roses on a dead poet's grave seems so neat to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's probably because you are jealous that you aren't passionate about something, even if it's something weird like visiting a total stranger's grave.

[/ QUOTE ]

Talk about hitting the nail on the head.

[fish2plus2]

Cool. Hopefully a bunch of idiots wont start doing it too.

[adsman]

"The torch will be passed."

Man, that's great. Why didn't my dad give me a torch to pass? I want a torch. That dudes son will probably turn out to be The Phantom or something cool now, just because he got a torch. That's so unfair.