The Poe Toaster is nevermore.
For the first time in 60 years, the mysterious cloaked man known as the “Poe Toaster” did not leave roses and a bottle of Cognac on Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Baltimore for his birthday.
The absence of the famed late-night visitor on Tuesday disappointed the group of Poe fans who eagerly awaited his annual visit to the Westminster Burial Grounds in Baltimore, said curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House, Jeff Jerome, in a telephone interview.
Jerome, who has attended the ritual since 1977, hypothesized that the toaster wanted to have his last toast be in 2009, on the bicentennial of Poe’s birthday, instead of “just ending it anytime.”
“Maybe he got tired of doing it, maybe be got tired of fighting the crowds to get in, maybe he just didn’t want to anymore,” said Jerome.
The Toaster left three roses for the three bodies that lay underneath the monument: Poe, his mother-in-law Maria Clemm, and his wife, Virginia Clemm Poe. As for the Cognac, Poe did not drink it because he could not afford it– it is probably just a favorite of the Toaster, and commonly used in toasts, said Jerome.
Jerome says he will continue to wait for the masked man for two more years, in case he just had the flu or his car broke down. Others will probably wait longer though, he said.
“I think a lot of people would love to say that I spent the night at grave waiting for this guy to show. The tradition will live on,” he said.
His biggest concern? That people will begin to mimic the Toaster by leaving bottles of alcohol on the monument. “When you start bringing whiskey bottles, it just looks trashy, there is nothing romantic about it,” he explained. “We don’t need another Poe toaster; one is enough.”
If you want more Poe the Boston Public Library is currently hosting an exhibit, The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston, about Poe’s love-hate relationship with Boston.
