Mysterious 'Poe Toaster' Once Again a No-Show

For 5th year, no roses, cognac left on grave
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 20, 2014 1:35 PM CST
Mysterious 'Poe Toaster' Once Again a No-Show
In this Jan. 15, 2013 photo, Jeff Jerome holds a bottle of unfinished cognac that was left one year on the grave of Edgar Allan Poe by the mysterious Poe Toaster in Baltimore.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Yesterday was Edgar Allan Poe's 205th birthday, but there were no roses and cognac left on his grave to mark the occasion. For years, a mysterious man known only as the "Poe Toaster" visited the Baltimore grave, leaving behind three roses and a half-drunk bottle of Martell, but for the fifth consecutive year, he was nowhere to be seen yesterday, The Wire reports. Despite some notes left by the Toaster, his identity remains unknown; the notes indicate the original Toaster may have died in the 1990s and passed along the tradition. It ran from 1949, the 100th anniversary of Poe's death, to 2009, the 200th anniversary of his birth. (More Edgar Allan Poe stories.)

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