Poe's last years.
Actually, he was not living in Baltimore when he died; he was here on a visit.
I should share with you one of the urban legends which makes Baltimore the place it is.
Poe is buried in the churchyard of what used to be Westminster Presbyterian Church, located in downtown Baltimore. It was originally (early 1800's) on the edge of the city, but, of course, the city has grown up around it. The church went out of business about 40 years ago for lack of communicants and the building and the churchyard are now owned by the U. of Maryland Medical School, which abuts it. An old story, which is not denied by the U. of Md., is that in the early days, when it was illegal to dissect human remains, the faculty of the med. school secretly dug a tunnel from the school to the cemetery so they could steal corpses for the students to dissect, and the tunnel is still in existence.
With that suitably Poesque prologue:
The churchyard is not large and Poe's grave is quite visible from the street, being marked by a fair-sized monument. It is surrounded by a wrought iron fence; the gates are never closed. Since the late 1940's, every year on Poe's birthday, a mysterious visitor, clad in a top hat and black cloak, visits the grave in the middle of the night and leaves a red rose and a half-full pint bottle of brandy on the grave. When this attracted attention, the church (later the University) arranged that there should be no publicity, and no interference with the visitor. The local newspapers staked out the area, but never succeeded in getting a photo; only a very vague description of the visitor's clothes. If anyone ever did know who the visitor is, it has never been revealed. Several years ago, the newspaper did receive an anonymous letter the night after the visit, explaining that the original visitor had died and the job was handed down to his sons, who have kept it up. Poe's birthday, and the visit, is in mid-January. This year, a sacrilege was committed; the visitor also left behind a sheet with two quotations from Poe stories wrapped in ribbons of the NY Giants colors (the Ravens' opponents in the Superbowl), all of which indicated that the visitor was a Giants fan!! It does not amaze me that there could be such a custom, after all this is Baltimore; what is amazing is that nobody has yet ruined it by gathering a crowd on the appropriate night or trying to apprehend and identify the visitor.
