Photo by Will Brown, courtesy Free Library of Philadelphia

A daguerreotype portrait of Edgar Allan Poe in the rare book division of the Free Library of Philadelphia

Courtesy Free Library of Philadelphia

Charles Dickens’s pet raven, Grip, and the inspiration behind Poe’s best-known work is on view at the Free Library.

Alexander Calder Titian Albrecht Durer Arshile Gorky Paul Cezanne Daido Moriyama Pompidou Plans a Roving Museum FIAC’s Cour Carrée “So Good It’s Scary”

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

Philadelphia isn’t the only city staking a claim to Edgar Allen Poe in 2009 — there’s also Boston, where he was born, and Baltimore, where he died in 1849, aged 40 and miserable. Some might argue that for a writer whose raw material was diabolism and eerie suspense, the attention should go to the city that claims Poe’s corpse. But better to save visits to his grave in Baltimore for the 160th anniversary of his death in October. More important is Poe’s 200th birthday this month, and the place to celebrate in early 2009 is Philly, where Poe enjoyed six (1838–44) of his happiest and most productive years, turning out some of his best short stories and criticism while editing two magazines.

At the rare book division of the Free Library is “Quoth the Raven: A 200 Year Remembrance of the Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe,” on view through February 13 for hard-core Poe fans who want to see autographed manuscripts, including “The Raven” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and first editions of “Tamerlane” and “The Balloon Hoax.” The show’s star is a stuffed bird, Grip, Charles Dickens’s pet raven and the inspiration behind Poe’s best-known work, which he started in Philadelphia but published after moving to New York. (While you’re at the library be sure to save some time for the four recently rediscovered banners by Alexander Calder, on view until March.)

Poe had several addresses during his stay in Philadelphia, but only one is still around today. For the bicentennial, the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, otherwise known as Poe House, located at Seventh and Spring Garden Streets, just reopened with several new exhibits. Poe lived in the house for about a year and a half, producing works including “Black Cat” — a trip to the basement, which remains largely unchanged, will resonate with those who remember the story’s creepy details. In the houses (the site extends to the one next door, though neither is furnished with original pieces) visitors can listen to readings of Poe’s work by such modern-day scaremongers as Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Christopher Walken. There’s also a new exhibit about the writer’s life and work in Philadelphia, as well as an interactive exhibit for children involving Poe’s brain.

Of course no one can know what was really going on in Poe’s brain during his years in Philadelphia, but a few attractions founded around that time might provide some insight into his influences.

SHRINE OF SAINT JOHN NEUMANN
Fans of Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which was written in Philadelphia, should add to their itinerary a visit to the National Shrine of Saint John Neumann, at the Parish of Saint Peter the Apostle not far from the Poe house. Named the Bishop of Philadelphia at age 41 in 1852, the German-born John Neumann died near his then-new cathedral on Logan Square in 1860 and was buried in a basement crypt at St. Peter that drew ever-increasing numbers of pilgrims over the years as many claimed miracles resulted from their visits. Pope Paul VI declared John Neumann “blessed” in 1963, and the church exhumed his remains and placed him in a glass altar in a lower church, where worshippers now gaze upon his actual corpse during mass. He was named a saint in 1977.
1019 North Fifth Street
215/627-3080
stjohnneumann.org

EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY
Further west, toward the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is Philadelphia’s most haunted attraction, the Eastern State Penitentiary. When it opened in 1829, the building was the most technologically advanced in the country — it had electricity and running water before the White House did — and its “hub and spoke” or panopticon layout, in which one guard can survey several cell blocks from a central hub, has served as a model for some 300 other U.S. prisons using its solitary-confinement or so-called “Pennsylvania System” (it also served as the setting for the insane asylum in the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys). Over 75,000 inmates served time there before it closed in 1971, including Al Capone and Willie Sutton. Dress warmly: The crumbling structure is unheated and the tour is largely outside.
22nd St. and Fairmount Ave.
215/236-3300
easternstate.org