Might tradition be nevermore?
A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer’s birthday failed to show up early yesterday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago. “I’m confused, befuddled,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore. “I don’t know what’s going on.” The tradition dates from at least 1949, according to newspaper accounts from the era. Since then, an unidentified person has come every Jan. 19 to leave three roses and a half-bottle of cognac at Poe’s grave in a church cemetery in downtown Baltimore.
