On This Day In History American Writer Edgar Allan Poe Was Born

On this day in 1809 Edgar Allan Poe, father of the American detective story and author of The Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven, was born.

You read my Crime Beat column on Poe's work and the tribute to Poe by modern-day crime writers via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/04/my-first-on-crime-thrillers-column-for.html

On This Day In History Edgar Allan Poe's Poem "The Raven" Was Published

As History.com notes, on this day in 1845 Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem The Raven was published.

You can read the event via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-raven-is-published?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2017-0129-01292017&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=142993310&kx_EmailCampaignID=9472&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2017-0129-01292017&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa

Poe's Philadelphia, Evermore

Arielle Emmett wrote an interesting piece for the Philadelphia Inquirer about the late great Edgar Allan Poe and his Philadelphia connection.

You wouldn't know from a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination that his dead wife showed up on stilts to dance with him one night. You wouldn't suspect from the richness of his poetry and short stories that Poe and his family were starved for calories for much of their lives. And you wouldn't guess from the bitter obituary written by his literary executor and rival Rufus Griswold - who claimed that Poe "had few or no friends" and that few would grieve for him - that his reading public not only adored Poe, but would soon elevate him to the status of dark literary god.
Nothing about Poe seems obvious: not the literary squabbles that cost him the support and admiration of people who could have furthered his career; not the scandals surrounding his flirtations with drugs, booze, and married women; not even the details of his mysterious death in a Baltimore hospital.

Poe remains a giant of mysteries, and Philadelphia was where many of those mysteries were born.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20121019_Poe_s_Philadelphia__evermore.html

Boston Chooses Life-Size Statute Of Edgar Allan Poe For The Boston Square Dedicated To The Writer

Johanna Kaiser at Boston.com reports on Boston's selection of a life-size statue to commemorate the writer's ties to Boston. (Your move, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York City).

American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe is set to return to the city of his birth in the form of a bronze statue standing in the Boston square dedicated to him.

The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston announced Monday that a life-size statue depicting Poe striding through Boston--trunk in hand, a raven at his side, a heart and papers trailing behind him--has been chosen to stand in Edgar Allan Poe Square, a tree-lined, brick plaza at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South, two blocks north of where Poe was born in 1809.

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You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

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http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/beacon_hill/2012/04/life-size_poe_statue_chosen_to.html
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Note: You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

Grip, The Raven Who Inspired Dickens and Poe, Is Stuffed And Stored At The Philadelphia Free Library

Phillymag.com offers an interesting piece about how Charles Dickens' pet raven, called Grip, was the inspiration for the raven in Dicken's novel Barnaby Rudge, and later served to inspire Edgar Allen Poe when he wrote The Raven in Philadelphia.

Grip, the raven who influenced two of the 19th Century's greatest authors, is now stuffed and on displayed at the Philadelphia Free Library.

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2011/10/31/poes-raven-stuffed-free-library/