It happens every year on January 19 in the wee small hours before dawn breaks over Baltimore, Maryland. There, in the cemetery of Westminister Presbyterian Church, a figure dressed in black slips through the shadows carrying three red roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac. The mysterious figure stops at the grave of Edgar Allen Poe, toasts the writer/poet, and leaves the flowers before he once again steps into the shadows and disappears.
The Poe Toaster, as he’s known, appears every year on the anniversary of Poe’s birth. Some believe the tradition started back in 1949 though there has been controversy. Last year, a former advertising executive said he cooked up the scheme to draw attention the cemetery as a way of preserving it. But others say that simply isn’t so. They point out an article that ran in the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1950 that mentions, “an anonymous citizen who creeps in annually to place an empty bottle” against the gravestone.
So who is the Poe Toaster?
Nobody knows, and even though a crowd waits every year for his (or is it her?) arrival, no one tries to find out, either. The Toaster’s anonymity is as important to the ritual as the flowers and the liquor. Next year will mark the 200th anniversary of Poe’s birth and that should make the rite especially significant.
So tell me . . . years from now, if there was an annual ritual at your grave, what would your Toaster bring to honor you?
I can say without a doubt that my Toaster would riase a glass of Polish potato vodka.
And if you were a Toaster . . . if there was only one writer you could honor each year on the anniversary of his or her birth, who would it be?
That’s a harder question to answer. I think I’d have to chose Agatha Christie which means I’d be in Cholsey, England on September 15 each year. I wonder what Dame Agatha’s beverage of choice would be.
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John Steinbeck.
by C.R.
on January 23rd, 2008 at 7:24 am
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Casey Daniels…..duh!
As far as my bev of choice…..let me think about that.
Z
by Zorro
on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:14 am
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I visited Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris, and was kicked out by a security guard for posing for a picture on the flat gravestone. A bottle of Jack Daniels was on the grave when we got there. It was full.
Apparently Jim gave up drinking.
by Don
on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:23 am
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Oh yeah, as far as what people can toast me with: two eggs over easy, bacon, wheat toast with grape jelly, black coffee.
by C.R.
on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:40 am
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Black coffee!
What a heeee-man.
I drink it black, with a little sugar…just enough to take the edge off my personality
Z
by Zorro
on January 23rd, 2008 at 9:00 am
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Zman,
If I put cream in my coffee, given as much I drink during the day, I’d weigh 225 pounds.
Wait a minute, I do weigh 225 pounds.
Cream please!
by C.R.
on January 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
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Pass the cream, CR. Only I’d like mine added to Kaluha.
by Administrator
on January 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 am
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What happened to the potato vodka?
by C.R.
on January 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 am
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Cream and potato vodka doesn’t sound very good together. If I’m drinking potato vodka, I’ll drink it either with tonic or straight, with lots and lots of ice. Then again, it’s good with lemonade, cranberry juice, pomegranite juice . . .
by Casey
on January 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 am
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What in the world is potato vodka?
by caryn
on January 23rd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
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Potato vodka is, quite simply, vodka distilled from potatoes. It has a different flavor from vodka distilled from grains. It’s quite distinctive and, I think, the best vodka. My favorite brand is Luksosowa (think I spelled that right). It’s a Polish word that means, “luxurious.”
by Casey
on January 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
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I would visit Dorothy Sayers or Madeleine L’Engle.
As for what to toast me with — I’d say a really good cup of hot chocolate. With whipped cream on top.
by Judy
on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
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I’d like to have a dirty martini actually.
And of course, it would be Ellery Queen. I’d get to celebrate 2 birthdays!
by Jeff
on January 24th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
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I was going to say John Locke but that puts me in England in August - tourist season! Same with Beatrix Potter. Jane Austen was born on Beethoven’s BD so it might be nice to be in Englad to hoist a pint in honor of both? Frankly Poe and Baltimore every year would be nice too!
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As for me, I’d have everyone eat a peach at a rock concert on the anniversary of my birth.
