Poe fans holding last vigil for mysterious visitor

[January 18, 2012]  BALTIMORE (AP) -- After two no-shows, fans of gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe are planning a possible final vigil Wednesday night in Baltimore to watch for the mysterious visitor who for decades had visited Poe's grave on the author's birthday.

The rose and cognac tributes of an anonymous man in black -- dubbed the "Poe Toaster" -- are thought to date to at least the 1940s. Notes left with the tributes indicate the tradition passed to a new generation in the 1990s.

But the visitor hasn't appeared since 2009 and was a no-show the last two years. Last year's vigil attracted impostors, including a man who arrived in a limo.

Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome says he'll wait one last time overnight Wednesday before calling an end to the tradition.

[Associated Press]

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