Farewell to Edgar Allan Poe Toaster a 60-year old tradition
On Edgar Allen Poe's 203rd birthday Thursday, the annual visits from the "Poe Toaster" have come to an end.
Every year on the author's birthday, a mysterious figure dressed in black with a white scarf and wide-brimmed hat has visited Poe's Baltimore grave to leave three red roses and a half-drunk bottle of cognac. The first sightings of the Poe Toaster were recorded in a 1950 article about restoring the cemetery's church. Church members recall hearing about Poe's visitor in the 1930s, the Times Union says.
Unbroken for over 60 years, Poe fans waited anxiously as the toaster failed to appear in 2010, then again in 2011. Finally after a third year, Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome has called an end to the tradition.
"I've been part of a ritual that people around the world read about," Jerome said. "I'll miss it."
Fans waited until nearly dawn on Thursday for the toaster, who's identity has never been discovered, ABC News reports.
Jessica Marxen and her sister Jeannette have been watching for the toaster for nearly 20 years, though the sisters are content not knowing his identity.
"There are so few mysteries," Jessica Marxen said. "It's a throwback to a more romantic time when people could have secrets."
The toaster had many imposters, including three who appeared on Wednesday evening, and has left two notes on record for other Poe fans. According to the Washington Post, one note indicated the tradition had been passed down to another to continue, and a second indicating his political beliefs by mentioning French opposition to the war in Iraq.
Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, but spent several years in Baltimore, where the Ravens football team is named after one of his most famous works. His death in Baltimore in 1849 is shrouded in mystery, and his macabre works continue to inspire and haunt readers.
Jerome hopes that a graveside reading of Poe's works scheduled for Thursday evening will become a new tradition for fans missing the Poe Toaster.