Over the past few days, we’ve taken you on a whirlwind tour of famous grave sites. Monday was devoted to fallen punk icons, and yesterday we explored the final resting place of our favorite cult film stars. For the final installment of this mini-series, we leave you with the graves of five legendary literary horror writers, from Edgar Allan Poe to Mary Shelley.
Edgar Allan Poe
Even for a master of horror, Edgar Allan Poe died a pretty damn freaky death. He breathed his last at Washington College Hospital, after he was found, frankly, flipping out in the streets of Baltimore. Said to have died of “cerebral inflammation” or “congestion of the brain” — euphemisms for alcohol-related demises — he may actually have fallen victim to anything from syphilis to delirium tremens. Beginning in 1949, an anonymous “Poe Toaster” (probably, in reality, a number of different people) left a bottle of cognac and three roses on the author’s grave, at Westminster Burial Ground in Baltimore, every January 19, Poe’s birthday. For the first time this year, the Toaster didn’t show.
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