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In Search of the Souls Close to Edgar Allan Poe

August 21, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

In Search of the Souls Close to Edgar Allan Poe

Since I was a teen, my father has clipped newspaper articles that he thinks will interest me. Many of the ones that I have kept since the late 1980s are focused on the Poe Toaster, the individual who visited Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in the early hours of the author’s birthday. Reporters shared how regardless of the weather conditions the mysterious visitor left tokens at the grave. I have been enchanted by the idea of this shadowy figure visiting the author’s grave annually for seven decades and this enchantment has never left me even though the ritual stopped in 2009.

Annually, I give the Poe tour in Shockoe Hill Cemetery near the anniversary of the author’s death in which I highlight connections to those interred in the cemetery. Poe lived with his foster parents in places in and around Shockoe Hill’s neighborhoods. He visited the cemetery both alone and with his wife to grieve the loss of his first ideal love and his foster mother. The tour is significant because the cemetery includes his foster family, his first and last fiancée as well as more friends and acquaintances than any other cemetery.

As a literature professor, I have read Poe’s short stories and poems, but I had not taken the time to read his letters or criticism. In 2022, I set out to change that; I expanded my research from Poe’s Richmond connections and created a grand tour of cemeteries to visit many of the people Poe knew well during his life. Poe visited cemeteries and churchyards before many of the garden cemeteries were established. He took strolls with his wife, courted women and visited and mourned late friends and loved ones.

There is nothing inherently unique about visiting the graves of individuals whose work was admired during their lifetimes. Bibliophiles make excursions to the graves of their favorite writers. There is something unique about visiting the graves of those who were one degree of separation away from an author. I wanted to meet the people Poe knew when he was alive to have a fuller story of the author based on the people with whom he associated.

I went to cemeteries and visited graves of his mother, wife, foster family, first and last fiancée, bosses, friends, cousins, school peers and instructors. The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore lists over 200 correspondents along with “420 surviving letters.” It was not possible for me to visit the graves of everyone Poe knew, at least not in one summer. I conducted research and made several road trips to southern cemeteries mostly in Virginia and Maryland, along with Washington, D.C.; Kentucky; South Carolina; and West Virginia.

I traveled to nineteen cemeteries and visited thirty-seven memorials. The names I had read in biographies and museum exhibits were now the names engraved on the tombstones. These were individuals who supported, inspired, and challenged him. There are even a few who attempted to foil his plans. While standing in each cemetery, I read letters to and from Poe at the graves of those who knew him.

Taking this journey, and visiting Poe’s grave numerous times, I was able to learn about him from so many different angles and perspectives. I admire his work ethic and his drive to make a living doing something for which he clearly had a talent. Writing was not pure joy for him. He did not always have an opportunity to advance southern literature or even American literature but frequently had to churn out popular stories that the newspaper readership demanded.

The amazing part of this project was that by connecting with Poe through his friends, family, and foes, I was able to have a deeper connection to his work, to literature and to sacred burial grounds. Visiting the graves transformed me. I took my own whiff of orris root at the grave of Frances Allan, a perfume Poe’s foster mother was remembered for wearing; I sat by the water near where Susan Ingram gathered with family and friends 173 years ago when Poe read poetry to them.

Although we do not have recordings of Poe reading his work, the Poe Museum in Richmond offers several great renditions online, including “Ulalume,” which seemed magical to Ingram. While I learned much about Poe during this project, I also learned about poets and writers I had not previously studied, including Philip Pendleton Cooke of Winchester, Virginia. Poe delighted in his work and valued his opinion, so it was Poe who introduced me to Cooke and his beautiful poetry. I read Cooke’s poetry about fall trees at his grave while early spring winds blew pollen around me. I still felt the magic.

On August 21, 2023, my research comes to fruition with the publication of The Souls Close to Edgar Allan Poe: Graves of His Family, Friends and Foes, which invites you to share my journey and have a fuller understanding of Poe’s life.

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Sharon Pajka, PhD, is a professor of English at Gallaudet University. On the weekends, find her in the cemetery giving history tours or volunteering, as well as running the Virginia Chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies.