Happy birthday to Virginia’s favorite author of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe! He would have turned 208 today, although his corpse, we’re sure, doesn’t look a day over 170.
Ravens and other menaces will gather at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, January 21, to celebrate. Housed in the old Southern Literary Messenger building, where Poe got his start as a newspaper writer, the party will offer TWELVE straight hours of “music, performance, tours, and (of course) birthday cake.” There will also be a midnight toast in the Poe Shrine.
For the complete schedule of events, click here. The museum also offers an Enchanted Garden and the world’s most “comprehensive collection of Edgar Allan Poe artifacts and memorabilia,” including Poe’s boyhood bed, his vest, and an 1831 collection of his poems.
In Baltimore, MD, today, the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum will host an “Open House Birthday Fete.” The museum is not typically open on Thursdays, but today they’ll make an exception, offering readings at the top of every hour and free admission to any guest dressed as one of Poe’s characters. Be still my tell-tale heart!
The Edgar Allan Poe House is a National Historic Site, with “much of the exterior and interior original fabric from the 1833-1835 period when Edgar lived there with his aunt, grandmother and two cousins.”
Can’t travel? Why not cozy up today with a few of Poe’s most famous writings, including “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and the poem “The Raven.”
For the complete biography of Edgar Allan Poe, click here.