A Sip of Cognac, a Birthday Toast ...

FOLLOW-UP: For the first time in more than sixty years, "The Poe Toaster" failed to marked the poet's birthday by laying roses and a bottle of cognac at his original grave site.

A Sip of Cognac, a Birthday Toast ...

... marking the birth of poet, writer editor and critic Edgar Allan Poe, born on this day in 1809, in Boston, his legacy has generated new interest in this new century.

Through his writings - and adaptations of said writings for stage, film, television, even cartoons - he is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, of tormented minds and souls. But he is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre (C. Auguste Dupin), and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction (Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym). It is noted that he was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Would that he could have enjoyed back then, the interest and success he enjoys today. A number of cities are fighting for the honor to claim him as theirs and only theirs, in what's been dubbed 'The Poe War.' Last year, the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp to commemorate Poe's 200th birthday. And every January 19th, in the pre-dawn hours, crowds gather in a Baltimore cemetery, hoping to someday glimpse a mysterious visitor who places three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac at Poe's grave in Baltimore before quietly slipping away.

It's hard not to feel the allure of the man's vision, and the way he crafted the words that have shared that vision with untold milllions of readers and filmgoers ... and will continue to do so long after you and I have passed on to join him for a sip of cognac.

Poe's Wikipedia write-up is a good start for finding out more about the man, his works and his legacy. You can also visit the websites of the Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Edgar Allen Poe Society in Balyimore, Maryland, or the Edgar Allen Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia.