Poe Toaster

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Poe Toaster is the media sobriquet used to refer to an unidentified person (or probably more than one person in succession) who, for several decades, paid an annual tribute to the American author Edgar Allan Poe by visiting the cenotaph marking his original grave in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early hours of January 19, Poe's birthday. The shadowy figure, dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat and white scarf, would pour himself a glass of cognac (or cherry brandy, amontillado, or Scotch whisky) and raise a toast to Poe's memory, then vanish into the night, leaving three roses in a distinctive arrangement and the unfinished bottle of liquor. Onlookers gathered annually in hopes of glimpsing the elusive Toaster, who did not seek publicity and was rarely seen or photographed. According to eyewitness reports and notes accompanying offerings in later years, the original Toaster made the annual visitation from sometime in the 1930s (though no report appeared in print until 1950) until his death in 1998, after which the tradition was passed to "a son". Controversial statements were made in some notes left by the post-1998 Toaster. In 2010, there was no visit by the Toaster, with absences in 2011 and 2012 signaling an end to the lengthy 75-year tradition. In 2016, the Maryland Historical Society selected a new "Toaster", marking the start of a new era for the tradition.