Baltimore Has Poe: Philadelphia Wants Him

[Dave Monroe]

In an effort to return Edgar Allan Poe to the City of Brotherly Love,
scholar and pundit issues a challenge

Baltimore Has Poe: Philadelphia Wants Him
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/06poe.html?em

The Bibliothecary: Ed & Edgar
http://bibliothecary.squarespace.com/ed-and-edgar/

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
http://www.eapoe.org/

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site [pdf]
http://www.nps.gov/edal/

Edgar Allan Poe
http://etext.virginia.edu/poe/poebiog.html

Scholar, Athlete, and Artist: Edgar Allan Poe at University of Virginia
http://www.literarytraveler.com/literary_articles/edgar_allan_poe_author.aspx

During his 40 years on earth, Edgar Allan Poe lived what might be
termed a productive and peripatetic existence. He was born in Boston,
raised in Richmond, spent time studying at Mr. Jefferson's University
of Virginia, returned to Richmond, left again for Boston, moved in
with his aunt in Baltimore, returned again to Richmond, spent time in
Philadelphia and New York City, and then made a fateful trip back to
Baltimore where he died. Poe was arguably the first American writer to
become an international celebrity, and his legacy remains undiminished
in the over 150 years that have passed since he breathed his last.
Given all that, it's not surprising that there is a minor tempest in a
teapot currently brewing over his last resting place. Poe is buried in
Baltimore, but Edward Pettit, a Philadelphian and Poe scholar, would
like to see him repatriated to the City of Brotherly Love. Pettit has
been calling for Philadelphians to join him in his cause, and his hope
is that Poe's body can be moved before the bicentennial of his birth
in January 2009. Pettit is quick to point out that Poe wrote many of
his most loved works in Philadelphia, including "The Fall of the House
of Usher" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". In response, Jeff Jerome, the
curator of the Poe House in Baltimore remarked, "Philadelphia can keep
its broken bell and its cheese steak, but Poe's body isn't going
anywhere." The matter may be resolved in a gentlemanly manner come
early January, when Mr. Pettit is scheduled to debate a
debater-to-be-named later regarding this dispute at the Philadelphia
Free Library.

The first link will lead visitors to a piece from the New York Times
which offers up some rather compelling details about this ongoing
debate between the City of Brotherly Love and Charm City. The second
link will lead visitors to the "Ed & Edgar" section of Edward Pettit's
website. Here visitors can learn about Pettit's interactions with all
things Poe, and his ongoing struggle to restore Poe's Philadelphia
legacy. Moving on, the third link leads to the homepage of the Edgar
Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Their site is quite nice, and visitors
can learn about Poe's time in Baltimore, his gravesite at the
Westminster Burying Ground, and also look over information on joining
their ranks. The fourth site will whisk users away to the website of
the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site in Philadelphia. It's a
great place to learn about Poe's time in Philadelphia, and visitors
can use the site to plan a visit. The fifth link will take users to an
excellent site created by the University of Virginia, which contains a
number of letters written to and from Poe while he was a student in
Charlottesville, along with many of his tales of horror, intrigue, and
general suspense. The final link leads to a nice essay by Scott D.
Peterson about Poe's time at the University of Virginia, where he
managed to rack up a sizeable amount of debt, write some poems, and
also gamble a bit of money away.

http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/