Today we remember Edgar Allan Poe, born this day in 1809 ~
("Happy Birthday" just didn't seem appropriate for Poe).
When Poe was originally buried in 1849, he was placed in an unmarked grave.
Pictured is the stone intended to mark Poe’s original burial site. (Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bulebushphotography/6007045867/)
His actual remains are now under a different stone in Baltimore which
was engraved erroneously with January 20th as his birth date rather than
the correct birth date of the 19th. (And some suspect that the remains
exhumed were not his actual remains).
Poe's reputation was
badly damaged by his literary adversary Rufus Griswold. Griswold, who
had been sharply criticized by Poe, took his revenge in his obituary of
Poe, portraying the gifted yet troubled writer as a mentally deranged
drunkard and womanizer. He also penned the first biography of Poe.
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