Lizzie Borden Society Forum

For the first time in 60 years the mysterious visitor who came and left roses and cognac at Edgar Allen Poe's grave each anniversary of his birth failed to appear.

See: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583347,00.html

I believe a mysterious someone used to send money each year to Fall River for flowers to be put on Lizzie's grave. I can't remember to whom the money was sent, possibly the FRHS.

It's amazing that many people have traveled so far just to witness the ritualistic visits.

What amused me about the Poe story was that people were surprised that the visits stopped after 60 years. We're probably speculating on a person from their mid-70s to mid-80s. The person may be ailing or may have died.

Personally, the motivation for the individual's dedicated annual visit is what is interesting to me.

A love of Poe's literature?

A Poe family descendant?

An individual who lived through a dark and frightening person experience who found kindred thoughts in a Poe story?

A person with alcohol/substance issues who stayed straight when considering the loss of Poe's talent against stories of his life-style?

60 years is a long-time to make an annual pilgrimage.

Wonder if someone new will step in and continue the tradition.

Harry, thank you for sharing this link with us.

I’m thinking that with a crowd of about three dozen people peering through the churchyard's iron gates hoping to catch a glimpse of the "Poe toaster", may have scared this person off, or as Cynthia stated, they may be ailing or have died.

Whatever the reason, this was an annual tradition which was done in private by this person; their privacy was definitely compromised with that many people hanging around.

If it was the same person for all those years they may have passed away. That's quite a record though

Poe briefly lived in NYC and when I was attending night courses at Fordham Univ. I used to pass the cottage where he lived briefly. It's still there. See:

http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/poecottage.html

I love how they say he brought his wife there for the "country air". It's hard for me, being born just north of the Bronx, to think of it as "country"