'Funeral' honours Edgar Allan Poe/ By Lawrence Pollard
After 160 years, the great American writer Edgar Allan Poe is finally to be honored with a decent funeral service.
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After 160 years, the great American writer Edgar Allan Poe is finally to be honored with a decent funeral service.
As part of events marking the anniversary, and 200 years since his birth, Baltimore, where Poe died and is buried, will host a double celebration.
So many Poe fans are expected to attend that the service will be repeated, after an all-night vigil at his graveside in the eastern US port city.
Virtually no-one turned up for his original funeral in 1849.
Edgar Alan Poe - the inventor of the detective story and creator of horror writing - is one of the most influential American writers ever.
But he died an impoverished lunatic at the age of 40.
His tombstone was destroyed. An enemy wrote his obituary and damaged his reputation for decades.
As if to make up for all these disasters, Poe is being royally treated this year.
Events from an academic conference in Philadelphia to a recreation of his death in Virginia have marked his demise.
Poe attracts devotion. For decades his birthday has been marked by the so-called Poe Toaster, a mysterious visitor who leaves three roses and some cognac on his tombstone.
And now Poe gets not one funeral service, but two - as befits the master of the macabre.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/10/11 02:51:59 GMT