Boston honors Poe, a native son who shunned the city
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
Like his famous raven that perched, never flitting, above the chamber door, Edgar Allan Poe today claimed a permanent place of honor in Boston's literary lore, as city officials dedicated Poe Square near the writer's birthplace.
Born in Boston 200 years ago in January, Poe had long been overlooked as a native son because of his rancorous relationship with the city and its writers. But after an aggressive campaign by a devoted band of Poe enthusiasts, city officials agreed to pay tribute to the "master of the macabre" by renaming the corner of Boylston and Charles streets across from the Boston Common.
"Together again at last," exclaimed Paul Lewis, a Poe scholar at Boston College who led the charge to honor the 19th-century writer.
In a dedication ceremony this morning, a beautiful spring day that seemed out of place for a tribute to the often-morbid writer, Lewis said the square would "celebrate the city's connection to Poe." He urged those still stinging from Poe's dismissal of Boston as a provincial "Frogpondium" to let bygones be bygones.
"To these unforgiving folk I say, 'Wow, you really, really know how to hold a grudge,' '' he quipped to the dozens who were on hand for the ceremony.
Lewis said that despite Poe's "literary war" against Boston-area writers such as Thoreau and Longfellow, he let it be known near the end of his life that he wished to be buried here. (His grave in Baltimore, the city he is most closely identified with, draws throngs.)
In a light-hearted introduction of Mayor Thomas Menino, Lewis waved off "cynics" who would say Menino was trying to "court the large pro-Poe vote."
Menino, noting that Poe and Boston had a "somewhat rocky relationship," said a reconciliation was overdue.
"It's time to stake our claim to a major part of Poe's legacy," he said. "Time for the raven to join ducklings and swans on our list of favorite birds."
Poe was skilled, Menino allowed, at crafting "anti-Boston zingers" such as "Their hotels are bad. Their pumpkin pies are delicious. Their poetry is not so good."
"Tough stuff," he said, half-admiringly.
The city's poet laureate, Sam Cornish, praised Poe's "broad, universal voice" before reading the Poem poem "Alone" in a deep, commanding voice.
"And all I lov'd, I loved alone," he said.
Lewis, who will curate a Poe exhibit at the Boston Public Library later this year, said he hoped to decorate the square with a statue and other public art. Maybe even a beating heart under the bricks at the newly dubbed square, he suggested, only half in jest.
"I'm saying it's a possibility," he said.
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.....and his tell tale ghost will haunt you all for dragging his legacy back to the frogpondium.
Didn't Poe hate Boston?
Poe was a pretty unhappy and unliked guy in general, but probably the best writer of his era. Succinct but evocative, he was far more interesting to me than the Transcendentalists or that windbag Melville. Probably the first writer to feel modern in style, inventor of the detective story, he's just the man.
Actually, The Ghost and Gravestones tour has been including Edgar Allen Poe, and the story from Castle Island for years. Seems fitting that the only tour to mention him is the one in the burial grounds.
Yikes. "The Cask of Amontillado" gave me nightmares as a kid. Never heard it may have been inspired by Castle Island.
I love Poe. My favorite Poe spot is at the University of Virginia, where his room on the "lawn" is preserved. Room # 13!
"Poe Square" and the other ideas are bad ideas. Poe didn't want to be a native of Boston, he hated Boston. He shouldn't be memorialized here. It would be unfair to him and silly for us. We have an abundance of history and literature here without adding Poe.
Chris, did you actually read the article? It clearly states his disdain for Boston several times.
To #3,
I like Poe too, but there is no way he is a superior author to Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, or Hawthorne. It's just not happening. I think most literary critics (Harold Bloom comes to mind) would agree.
Of course we know how to hold a grudge. We are Bostonians. Hello?
If Poe didn't want to be a Bostonian, it suits me. I enjoy his work anyway.
"He [Poe] was a seminal figure in the development of science fiction and the detective story, and exerted a great influence on Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, and Charles Baudelaire, who championed him long before Poe was appreciated in his own country. Baudelaire's enthusiasm brought Poe a wide audience in Europe, and his writing came to have enormous importance for modern French literature." [From an Inside Flap of Poe's collected works]
Yeah, OK...whatever.....it's not going to bring more tourists here being his birthplace but nice enough gesture and so noted for the ages.
I'll just keep listening to "Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edgar Allen Poe" from The Alan Parsons Project.
Jenna, he was born here. He has many fans here. Marking the place of his birth and giving his admirers a place to visit, locally, in no way insults Poe or diminishes his supposed "hatred" of Boston. Like it or not, he *was* born a Bostonian.
Can't blame him for having issue with the Transcendalists. Poe was a far more interesting writer. BTW - does anyone else think Professor Lewis and Poe have that separated-at-birth look?
Good on Boston for giving Poe his own square.
Poe would be dismayed at the lack of reading comprehension displayed here.
Boston By Foot includes Poe on the Literary Landmarks tour (as an optional stop) and the Haunted Boston walking tour talks about his birthplace and the Fort Independence/Cask of Amontillado story too. It's nice that now we can point to Edgar's square and not the plaque on the side of Boloco.
I think its fitting that Poe be memorialized in a place that he disliked, given that he made a career in writing largely inspired by his dislikes...
It can't hurt to include Poe as part of Boston's history. 200 years have passed and so have the people he had issues with. Besides, he was way ahead of his time in admiring the cities culinary talents.
What next, a square for A-Rod? Go balance the budget Mr. Mayor!
How many other misfits, miscreants, depressives, alcoholics and opium addicts have attracted attention except by th epower of literature?
Jeez, it looks like the Mayor of Boston was shamed into doing something to celebrate Poe's Bicentennial. I guess after he saw what Baltimore has been doing since 1875 to honor Poe and how the fine citizens of Baltimore are celebrating Poe's Bicentennial I guess he thought Boston should get into the act also.
But don't worry, when 2010 comes around Boston will drop Poe like an empty bottle of Amontillado!
Poe was born in Fall River while his parents were en route to Boston
Wait, how did something in this city get named after someone besides Menino?
No one takes Harold Bloom's opinions on Poe seriously. Bloom sheepishly admitted to me he had been "intolerant" towards Poe. Bloom's ideas were nothing but a rehash of T.S. Eliot's 'From Poe To Valery' (1949). T.S. Eliot's grandfather, William Greenleaf Eliot, knew Emerson & Harvard Divinity School Unitarian William Ellery Channing, whose nephew, a poet subsidized by Emerson, was going to be the first great Transcendentalist Poet, until Poe ridiculed Channing's poems in a review. The Harvard establishment has hated Poe ever since. Poe is America's Shakespeare. Welcome home, Poe!!!
It's Allan, not Allen!
The Castle Island / "The Cask of Amontillado" connection is ridiculously unfounded; hopefully Boston By Foot and other groups will discontinue spreading rumors. Further, to poster #20 (and others), let's also stop spreading the rumor that Poe was an opium addict. It's proven that Poe wasn't even a recreational drug user so let's allow it to die out already.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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