Fans Hope Poe “Toaster” Returns This Year

The plot thickens.

Every year, on January 19, an anonymous, mysterious visitor leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac on Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Baltimore to mark the American writer’s birthday.

The visitor is known as the “Poe Toaster” and he’s been doing it for some six decades.

It’s such a big deal, Poe fans gather early in the morning for a chance to catch a glimpse of the unknown man dressed in black do his thing.

Well, last year the Toaster didn’t show up. However, that's not expected to keep fans away.

The curator of the Poe House and Museum thinks even more people will visit Wednesday morning, with hopes the Toaster will return.

Poe is the literary master known for such haunting poems as “The Raven” (yes, that’s why Baltimore’s NFL team is named after a bird) and grisly short stories including “The Pit and the Pendulum.”

Poe died Oct. 7, 1849, at age 40. The actual cause of death also remains a mystery, although many speculate it was due to his alcoholism.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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