BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF EDGAR ALLAN POE

American poet, short story writer, and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) lived in this small home from 1833 to 1835:

This isn't the only Poe home that is a museum. There's another one that I'd like to see in Richmond, Virginia, and another in Philadelphia, as well as his dorm room at the University of Virginia. Then there is his house in the Bronx, where his wife died in 1847. All of these are museums. If you are a member of the Poe Cult, there is plenty to see.

Even in Baltimore, as the museum points out, there are plenty of Poe sites:

Poe lived here on Amity Street with his grandmother, aunt, and two cousins. It was in this house that, at age 27, he married his first cousin Virginia Clemm, who was only 13. Yeah, it's a little creepy.

The Poe family tree shows the kinship of Edgar and Virginia:

While the building is Poe's former home, almost none of the furnishings or decorating items were actually his. However, the excellent information on Poe's life presented throughout the house made this a worthwhile visit:

The signs on either side of the mantle in this photo list the titles of poems and stories Poe wrote here in Baltimore, none of which are among his best-known works:

We climbed a narrow, twisting staircase to access what would have been Poe's bedroom and work area:

This bow-back Windsor chair is the one item in the house that almost certainly belonged to Poe:

Poe had a lifelong passion for astronomy, and this telescope, which belonged to his uncle, was one he likely used while living in Baltimore:

This writing desk belonged to Poe's foster family, the Allans, and family lore says that Poe used it during his brief stint at the University of Virginia:

There is a re-creation of Poe's attic bedroom. Did he share this room with his wife? I would assume so. (By the way, they never had children.)

I especially enjoyed the many tributes paid to Poe by other writers:

H. L. Mencken always has to be a spoilsport:

Although he left Baltimore in 1835, Poe kept up many contacts in the city, and somehow he ended up here in 1849, whether intentionally or not, on his way home to New York. No one knew where he was for about a week until he was found delirious on the streets of downtown Baltimore wearing borrowed clothes. He was taken to Washington University Hospital, but he was incoherent and hallucinating, and he slipped in and out of a coma before dying on his fourth day there.

Some believe he died of alcoholism, others think he had rabies, and still others are sure it was meningitis. The mystery of Poe's death is perhaps as good as any mystery he wrote about in his short stories.

On our way out, I paused to admire the Poe Memorabilia. Just as I had been tempted by the Bobblehead Pope Francis at our last stop, I was again tempted by the Bobblehead Poe. Yet again, I resisted.

We went from Poe's house to Poe's grave at Westminster Church, less than a mile away. The building no longer functions as a church. In fact, it is an "event center" (imagine being married here); however, the graveyard that surrounds it is well-maintained, and the entire complex is suitably creepy for America's first horror writer. However, this acreage was just a cemetery when Poe was buried here. The Gothic Revival church, which actually straddles some of the graves, was not built until three years after Poe's death.

This was "once Baltimore's most prestigious cemetery," and among its residents are 25 Baltimoreans who died in the War of 1812, as well as David Poe, Sr., Edgar's grandfather.

Edgar was originally buried in the Poe plot in the back corner of the cemetery by his grandpa, but as his fame grew in the years following his death, it was decided that a larger monument more fitting of his literary stature was needed. Several years of fundraising later, this marble marker was placed in the front corner of the churchyard in 1875, probably the most visible spot possible. Poe's body was re-interred to lie beneath this marker in a ceremony attended by many VIPs, including the poet Walt Whitman. The front of the monument has a portrait medallion of Poe, and the back is engraved with the dates of his birth (wrong by one day) and death:

The bodies of the two most important women in his life were also brought to rest here in 1885, Virginia (his wife) and Maria Poe Clemm (his aunt who became his mother-in-law). Their names, birth, and death dates were added to the monument in 1977:

There are many others buried in the Westminster yard within and beneath a crazy hodgepodge of crypts, tombs, and grave markers. No two are alike:

One of the almost supernatural elements in the graveyard is this marble bench that appears to be sagging. But how can marble sag?

The original burial site of Poe's body is marked with a nice stone:

. . . as is the nearby grave of his grandfather, David Poe Sr., a veteran of both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812:

Just as we were leaving, a busload of Asian tourists pulled up. Out hopped several dozen men and women who congregated around Poe's gravesite, snapping selfies, posing for photos, speaking a language I did not understand, but generally acting like Americans. I wonder if a similar thing could happen in reverse: a busload of Americans at the gravesite of an Asian author in an Asian country. Somehow I don't think so.

READING

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe is available on Kindle for just 99¢ (or at least it was when I wrote this post). With over 125 works, that's less than a penny per item!

My favorite stories by Poe include "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Pit and the Pendulum." The poem "The Raven" is quintessential Poe, but I also love "Annabel Lee" and "Lenore." They are all here and more, including a list of movies and TV shows based on or inspired by Poe's writing, a Reading Guide to fictional works that feature Edgar Allan Poe as a character, and links to free recordings of Poe's major poems and short stories.  It's an incredible bargain!