Nevermore 2009

[lordsathien]

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore, the city where Edgar Allan Poe died, will celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth with "Nevermore 2009," a year's worth of exhibits and programs.

Events will include a one-man show, POE in Person at the Baltimore Theatre Project; a wine tasting inspired by Poe's sadistic revenge tale The Cask of Amontillado in the catacombs beneath Westminster Hall, a former church in west Baltimore; and exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The website for the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore has a link to the Baltimore Poe House and Museum, eapoe.org. Details on the festival are at Nevermore2009.com.

Poe died in Baltimore in 1849 and is buried there at the Westminster Burying Grounds. The city plans an elaborate re-enactment of his funeral on the anniversary of his death in October 2009.

The city aggressively promotes its ties to Poe thanks in part to a mysterious visitor who leaves a half-empty bottle of cognac and three red roses at the author's grave every year on the anniversary of his Jan. 19 birthday. The city also named its football team the Ravens to honor Poe.

But other cities also have claims on Poe. The author of The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart was raised in Richmond, Va., where the Edgar Allan Poe Museum — www.poemuseum.org — is planning lectures, exhibits, workshops and a series of "Unhappy Hours" (with cash bar); details at poe200th.com.

Poe wrote many of his enduring works in Philadelphia, and one of the houses where he lived is now the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, managed by the National Park Service. Click on "Poe's Bicentennial Events" at nps.gov/edal to find out about talks and exhibits at the site and related events in Philadelphia. (Note that the historic site is closed Dec. 1 to mid-January for renovations.)

Poe also lived for a time in the Bronx, in what today is called the Poe Cottage. His wife died there and he wrote some of his classics there, including Annabel Lee. The cottage is undergoing renovation but remains open to the public; details at Poe Cottage, www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/poecottage.html.


Also,

WASHINGTON (AP) - Poet and master of terror Edgar Allen Poe is being honored Friday (January 16th) on a new commemorative postage stamp.

Ceremonies marking the issuance of the 42-cent stamp are scheduled at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, the city where Poe was raised following the death of his parents.

A member of the post office's board of governors, Katherine C. Tobin, says it's ironic that Poe is loved by so many so long after his death when he faced loneliness, poverty and despair throughout much of his life.