A Little Romance, a Big Step and an Old Book

Amidst work, going to a wedding and everything else that happened this past weekend, I managed to squeeze in something special. After dating for just over six years, I proposed to Miss L. I won't go into the full details, but we had dinner in Annapolis, walked down to the waterfront and I popped the question in a somewhat quiet spot along the water. It wasn't a surprise at all---we've been talking about it for months, so when I said we were going somewhere nice for dinner and it wasn't a special occasion it was pretty obvious. I must have done ok, though, because she said yes.

One of the growing trends these days is for the woman to give the man gift after the proposal. I've read everything from plasma tv's to ipods, but when Miss L asked me I told her it should be something more permanent and personal than that, but I didn't want jewelry. So when we got back to her apartment Miss L lit some candles and handed me a wrapped package. I opened it, intensely curious to find out what she picked for a gift. Inside I found a book, an old volume bound in worn leather. After opening to the title page, I found this:

The book holds a mixture of articles, criticism, fiction and poetry. I noticed familiar names like HW Longfellow and Mary Spencer as well as crazy pictures like these:

Finally, on page 257, I found the reason for her choice:

After a little research, I've learned that Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine was a Philly based journal known for mixing articles on art and fashion and including new works of short fiction and poetry for many writers of the day. At the time, it was one of the highest paying markets in the U.S. Poe himself worked as editor for the journal for a little over a year, and used the journal to publish and promote both his own work and work by others that he admired (Longfellow, Dickens, etc). Its pages were the first to publish Poe works like "A Descent into the Maelstrom", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and yes, "The Mask of Red Death".

Not exactly romantic by today's meaning of the term, it does show how well Miss L knows me. It's a wonderful choice for a gift, especially since "Masque" or "Mask" as it's called here is one of my favorite Poe stories. I've always thought about collecting old books. A couple of years ago my grandpa gave me an early printing of a collection of Ambrose Bierce stories. Placed together, the two volumes make a nice start to a collection. Hopefully Miss L and will be able to add to it as the years go by.

Excelsior

Happy B-Day Poe

This past January 19th marked the 198th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe; miss L and I chose to celebrate with a wild throng of fellow Poe fans at the annual celebration put on by the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, Md. I was held at Westminster Hall, an old church downtown that now functions as a rental space and a tourist site because Poe's dead body rests in their graveyard. It's a great space for a small performance; large enough to hold a couple of hundred people, but small enough that there really weren't any bad seats. The stained glass windows and general environment lent an air of gothic mood that added to the whole evening.

The Poe Society set up a small exhibit in the balcony level; it was small but fun, showing off locks of hair of Poe and his wife Virginia, as well as copies of magazines some of Poe's stories first appeared in. The Baltimore-Washington Beer Works was there, selling glasses, mugs and hats tied to their Raver Lager (The taste is Poetic). And movie director Mark Redfield was there, selling and signing DVD's for his film The Death of Poe (I bought one, but haven't watched it yet).

The event itself was built around live performances of two of Poe's short stories: "The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar" and "Berenice". The first was a bit of a surprise; although a bit of a Poe fan, it's not one I've read too many times. It's an odd, macabre story about what might happen if someone is mesmerized a moment before their death. The story was one of Poe's most popular during his life. It became widely copied and distributed as a scientific paper in Europe, making many believe that Poe's strange story was really fact. It took several interviews to convince the public otherwise.

"Berenice" is an early tale of Poe, and is a story that lays down the foundation for a lot of Poe's macabre tales: an unreliable narrator with a strange, dark obsession and grisly details. I imagine it was performed in honor of the Baltimore Poe house, because the tale was actually written when Poe lived there.

The performances themselves were fun. The actors played it a little bit serious, a little bit campy---very appropriate for the crowd and the event. Between acts they gave away doorprizes---two large cakes with Poe's happy face on them as well as a copy of Redfield's DVD. The whole shebang closed with an actor portraying Poe and performing dramatic readings of some of Poe's work in verse. I have to give it to the crowd; I expected some of them to bolt at the idea of poetry, but everyone stayed, listened and really seemed to appreciate the poetry as much the stories. It was nice to see, since that was Poe's true love.

In two years time we'll hit the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. I'll be curious to see what the Baltimore Poe House---as well as other Poe sites in Richmond, Charlottesville, and NY City----will do to honor the dark poet America. Who knows....it might be a good time for a road trip vacation.

Excelsior.

Saturday With Poe

This past weekend Miss L and I made a little sidetrip to the Poe House in downtown Baltimore, Md. Baltimore is mostly associated with Poe in relation to his death and all the various theories surrounding it. But Poe actually lived in Charm City for a time; itwas his home at the time he first started writing short stories. His very first published story, "Berenice", was written in the tiny bedroom on the top floor.

pic 1-Poe House, image courtesy of the Poe Society

The first thing I'll mention is that the house (pic 1) is not in the best part of Baltimore. Just to the left of the house sits a set of one level apartments. And while the families hanging out on the porch were very nice to us, their homes were in great disrepair. A number of other buildings on the block were completely boarded up. As you approach the door to the house, the first thing you see is a sign on the doorway. The sign warns you about the area, warns you to not give out any money to panhandlers, and to knock to gain entrance. I personally didn't feel uncomfortable or threatened, but some people might.

The inside is just what you might think. An old house with creaky wood floors. The entry room is run both as an entrance lobby and gift shop, which mostly holds pamphlets of critical and historical essays printed by the Poe Society. The nice lady in the black t-shirt who let us in told us the house rules, collected our $4 and sent us on our merry ways.

You go up one level and find one of the key features of the museum: a video display, which is really a collection of interviews of curator Jeff Jerome conducted by various local news teams. Most of the interviews seem like they were done near Poe's birthday and talked extensively about the unknown figure who leaves licquor and roses on Poe's grave every year. Although they do give a good bit of background on the house, they look like they were taped right off the t.v. and like they've been played hundreds of times. If there are any budding filmmakers in the area it's a venue that could really use some talented and kind soul to volunteer some hours with a camera and a studio to give them a real professional video.

Up one more level, and you arrive in a small room ringed with Gustave Dore's illustrations of Poe's "The Raven". There are also a few display cases holding an assortment of items, everything from the medalion off of his 2nd grave marker (pic 2) to a newspaper ad Poe placed to solicit submissions for a literary project he was editing (pic 3). Probably the crown jewel of the collection is the writing lap-desk donated to the museum by UVA (pic 4).

Pic 2-Poe's 2nd Marker

Pic 3-Poe Advertisement for Penn Journal

Pic 4-Poe's Lap Desk

To get to Poe's bedroom you climb up a set of narrow, high stairs to the top floor. You can't actually go into the bedroom itself (it's roped off) but you can look in enough to get an idea of his living circumstances at the time (pic 5). The conditions were, in a word, spartan.

Pic 5-Poe's Room

After leaving the house we made the short drive to Westminster Church (pic 6), now Westminster Hall, which is the home for Poe's decomposing body. When Poe was first buried in 1849, he was placed in an unmarked grave. By 1860 he was given proper recognition with a full tombstone labelled with the epitaph "Hic Tandem Felicis Conduntur Reliquae", which translates roughly as "Here, at last, he is happy". The stones were damaged several years later by vibrations from a nearby train rail. A few years later school children in Baltimore collected money under a program called "Pennies for Poe" to give a new marker (the same one kept at the house museum and shown in pic 2 above). He was later exhumed and reburied under a larger monument, between the graves of his wife Virginia and his mother-in-law Maria Glemm.

Pic 6-Westminster Church

Both Miss L and I have an affinity for graveyards. Miss L for her sense of history and me because of my morbid curiousity. The grounds are small, but still nicely kept (pic 7). Much better kept up than the Poe House itself. One thing that surprised me is that Poe rests not far from the gravesite of his own grandfather, David Poe (pic 8).

Pic 7-Graveyard at Westminster Church

Pic 8-David Poe's Grave

Pic 9-Poe's Original Grave

Pic 10-Poe's Current Grave

It seems a museum trapped within a very narrow definition and an even narrower budget; perhaps with a little vision and some funding it could envigorate itself with outreach programs and fun events. I know these aren't easy things, though. I am, admittedly, somewhat of a Poe fan. I'm no expert but I return to his poems, essays and short stories at least once a year so I enjoyed treading the steps he did. The two stops aren't the best tourist sites in Baltimore but probably worth the $4 admission if you like Poe. If you're really a fanatic about the gloomy bard I'd actually suggest heading down to Richmond and checking out the Poe House there. They have a better tour and a much broader range of artifacts.

Excelsior.