Graverobbers after Poe

The irony of course is that hardly any one attended his funeral in 1849; no marker on his grave for a couple of decades afterward.

Nowadays, Baltimore loves Edgar Allan Poe. So does Richmond, Virginia. However, there’s also a fellow from Philadelphia who is arguing that Poe not only belongs to that city, his remains should be moved there as well. The NY Times has the story in “Baltimore Has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him “

[…] last year Edward Pettit, a Poe scholar in Philadelphia, began arguing that Poe’s remains belong in Philadelphia. Poe wrote many of his most noteworthy works there and, according to Mr. Pettit, that city’s rampant crime and violence in the mid-19th century framed Poe’s sinister outlook and inspired his creation of the detective fiction genre.

An old-fashioned debate has been scheduled between Pettit and Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House in Baltimore. And as you can see, a lot of this is tongue in cheek:

“Philadelphia can keep its broken bell and its cheese steak, but Poe’s body isn’t going anywhere,” said Jeff Jerome […]

“If they want a body, they can have John Wilkes Booth,” Mr. Jerome added, referring to Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, who is also buried in Baltimore.

Via Jacket Copy.