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Hosts Scott and Jenn, discuss Edgar Allan Poe while visiting Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, covering the mysterious circumstances of his 1849 death after being found delirious in the streets.

They trace Poe’s early life (orphaned, taken in by the Allan family), his Army service and brief West Point stint, and his struggling writing career, including The Raven’s 1845 publication for $9 and the death of his wife/cousin Virginia in 1847.

The episode details rival Rufus Wilmot Griswold’s scathing pseudonymous obituary, his acquisition of Poe’s literary rights from Maria Clemm, and forged portrayals that both damaged and amplified Poe’s fame before later rebuttals discredited Griswold.

📍 Travel to this cemetery

🎥 Video version of this podcast

00:00 Poe’s Final Mystery

00:49 Welcome to Talk with History

01:34 Why Poe Still Matters

04:39 Podcast Shout-Out Break

05:38 Orphaned Origins in Baltimore

09:10 Army Enlistment and West Point

12:59 Poems, Publishing, and Baltimore Return

14:55 Marriage, Tuberculosis, and Making Ends Meet

16:39 A Rival Writer Enters the Story - Rufus Griswold

17:59 Poe vs Longfellow

18:23 Virginia Illness and Loss

18:46 The Raven Breakthrough

19:56 Griswold Rivalry Begins

23:26 Obituary and Death Mystery

28:21 Rights Stolen and Forged Memoir

31:34 Griswold Discredited

33:37 Grave Marker and Reburial

37:09 Poe Toaster Tradition

39:01 Legacy and Final Farewell

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Imagine a cold, rain-soaked night in October 1849.

A man is found wandering the streets of Baltimore, delirious, dressed

in clothes that aren't his own, and whispering a name into the fog.

Days later, he is dead, taking the secret of his final hours to a lonely grave.

He was a pioneer of the American short story, the inventor of the

detective fiction genre, and a man whose very name is synonymous with

horror, mystery, and the macabre.

We are talking, of course, about Edgar Allan Poe.

But the mystery didn't end with his death.

For decades, his final resting place became the site of a bizarre

tradition where a cloaked stranger known only as the Poe Toaster would

appear in the dead of night to leave three roses and a half-empty

bottle of cognac on his headstone.

Welcome to Talk with History.

One filmmaker, one historian, leading history-inspired world

travels for the curious, the history lovers, and the explorer in us all.

I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jenn.

Hello.

Today we are stepping into the shadows of literary history.

Jenn recently traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, to visit the historic

Westminster Hall and Burying Ground to stand before the monument to Edgar Allan

Poe and his original, more hidden grave.

We're diving deep into the tragic, mysterious circumstances surrounding

his death, the shifting history of his actual burial plot, and what it's like

to explore one of the most hauntingly beautiful cemetery sites in America.

I'm Scott Bennie, and today we are knocking on the door of the

ultimate master of mystery All right, Jenn Edgar Allan Poe

I'm a fan, right?

I think, didn't, didn't you have to read him in school growing up?

I think, I think all of us do, especially here in the States, and Edgar Allan

Poe was always so interesting to me because wasn't quite my thing, but

people are oddly attracted to his writing and kinda his whole aura.

Yeah, well I think his…

I'm a huge fan of The Raven.

I, I think we had to read that in school, and the, the measure and the pace of his

poetry is always kinda mysterious- Yeah … anyway, and I love, I love The Raven and

how he kinda weaves that story together.

and then Simpsons did a really good job with it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sim- I

mean, Edgar Allan Poe is a household name- Yeah

here in the States.

He, he is, he's a world famous writer.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

An American writer, and of course, you know, he's a, he's kind

of a part of American culture.

And so much so, like, so when I went to Baltimore, this was my second time

to really get into Baltimore, and the first time I was there I really wanted

to do Fort McHenry because of the star, star ban- Star Spangled Banner.

But the second thing I wanted to do was go to Edgar Allan Poe's grave,

and 'cause that's kinda what you know as- Yeah … Americans of Baltimore.

And so much so, it's, it's into our NFL team.

Yeah.

The Baltimore Ravens are named for his poem The Raven.

Yeah.

So I really wanted to go there.

It, I was lucky.

It's, it's in, within walking distance of downtown Baltimore, where I was, and

it's a beautiful cemetery, well-kept.

I had great access, and then to tell his story, and as we dive more into

Edgar Allan Poe and his life, I, I am always amazed because writers at

this time do not really make it big,

right?

That's, that's true.

And, and I would say, and we'll talk more about this- Mm-hmm … for

him specifically, he was well-known at the time but became m- like,

his kind of, his legend became much greater after his death.

Yeah.

I mean, we get people like Herman Melville who write Moby Dick and

never appreciated in their time.

Now it's considered, like, the greatest novel, one of the greatest novels, and he

dies destitute because writers are not, like, really appreciated in the time.

And e- even Poe, it's this folklore after his time and this whole mystery of trying

to discourage his name and bury his name, that really brings him into prosperity.

You get rare people like Dickens, but even when I went to Dickens' house, he didn't

make it for a very long time as a writer.

Destitute, and then finally something took off, right?

So you have to realize, writers at the time, Oscar Wilde, people who are

doing this, it's 'cause they have to.

They love to.

Yeah.

They're artists, and that's very much Poe.

It's like, it's even though he tries his hand at the military, we'll talk about

this, his lifestyle, he, it's the writing that is what he does his whole life.

Yeah.

It's like he- He has to do it

Now, before we get too much kinda into his background, I do wanna

give a quick shout-out to someone who wrote us a five-star review.

Oh, awesome.

So we got a five-star review from, and I wonder if this person is a Naval

Academy person, because their name on Apple Podcast is Tecumseh1388.

So the five-star review, it says, "So well done. This is such an informative

history podcast. Thank you." So I have seen our five-star reviews

kinda ticking up on Apple Podcast, so thank you everybody for doing that.

Please continue to, to leave those reviews, or at least, you

don't even have to write anything.

You just can just go in there and drop five stars.

so it really does kinda help give us some street cred, and I just

wanna say thank you to Tecumseh1388.

Yeah.

We're trying to catch the History Channel.

Yes.

We're, we're, we're getting there.

Talking about Edgar Allan Poe.

Bringing history back to the History Channel.

Yes.

S-

There will be no aliens in this podcast

So talking about the Naval Academy and Tecumseh and our military

background, Edgar Allan Poe has a military background, and I don't

know if a lot of people know that.

So you have to realize, Poe he's orphaned, right?

So his, he comes from a strong military background.

That's why he's buried in the family Poe plot in Baltimore, Maryland, because

his grandfather is actually a business leader of Baltimore, so much so during the

Revolution when Lafayette comes through and his soldiers are wearing threadbare,

uniforms, his grandfather sponsors the, to all, get all new uniforms.

Oh, wow.

So, so the Poe family name is well-known in the Baltimore area.

Well-known in the Baltimore area, and so much so, like, when Lafayette

does his return tour, he wants to especially, like, pay homage

to Baltimore and the Poe family.

Oh,

wow.

So it's like, just a, an important family that really

supported the American Revolution.

And so when Poe's… So it's, it's that son, David Poe, who is, Edgar Allan Poe's

father, David Poe Jr., he is an actor.

And so this is, again, at the time it's not as you think of actors today.

It's an art love that you really are almost destitute again.

Yeah, I

mean, this is… If you're thinking about it, this is late 1700s,

early 1800s that someone's trying to make a living as an actor.

Yes.

And so he's an actor, and he marries another actress.

So again, two people who are barely making ends meet.

Wow.

And, and he, she has two sons, pretty, quickly.

William is his older brother, and then Edgar Allan Poe is

born, January 19th, 1809.

Yeah.

His second son.

And then, David, you know, you have to imagine, we talk about this a lot,

when things are hard and life isn't going well, men turn to alcohol, and

women too, to self-medicate because there's no talking about your feelings

then and working it out and- It

wasn't a, wasn't a thing

so he becomes an alcoholic, and-

This is the older bro- or this is the father.

The father.

The

father.

Okay.

Yeah.

And, and he abandons the family right as she's pregnant with their third child- Oh,

wow … which is a daughter, and then he will die of, they believe, tuberculosis-

Okay

in 1811, right after the daughter is born.

And so,

And that's not long after Edgar- Mm-hmm … Edgar Allan Poe too-

Yeah … 'cause he was born in 1809.

Yes.

Edgar Allan Poe will say that, " My father David died on the second year of my age

when my sister, Rosalind, was an infant in arms." Now, his wife will also die, in,

1811.

Okay, so this is, this is the kids' mom.

Yes.

Okay.

So she dies early on 1811.

He'll die December 1811, so these kids are all now orphaned, right?

Wow.

Now, remember they have a famous paternal grandparent, right?

Because-

Yep

… so that, the oldest son goes to live with them, and then Edgar, goes to Richmond,

Virginia to the Allan family, and then Rosalind, she also goes to Richmond,

Virginia to the Mackenzie family.

The reason why is because the Poe family is in Richmond at the time,

and even though David has abandoned the family, his, his mother, , Eliza.

she's a pretty famous actress.

She's been performing a lot.

Huh.

So it's kinda like these benefactors of-

So they're the ones who take the kids in.

Take the kids in.

How interesting.

And that's where Allan gets that middle name, Edgar Allan Poe.

He got it from the family that took him in.

Yes, kind of to pay respect to them.

Wow.

So, so again, why does he join the military?

It's because he's unable to support himself, right?

And h- his grandparents are helping support this grandchild.

He can't support himself, and so the Allan family tells him, "You have to

go make your way in the world." Yeah.

And so military is in his background, so he enlists in the army in 1827.

Now, he uses Edgar A. Perry as his name.

he claims he's 22.

He's actually 18.

So he actually tries to go to the University of Virginia first-

Oh

in 1826 to study ancient and modern languages.

But, he ha- has strict rules against gambling, guns, tobacco, alcohol,

all of the things which Edgar Allan Poe likes to do because- Yeah

he is young and in college.

So he's like, "No, thanks."

Yeah.

So he gets kicked out.

So and then he also loses his money because the Allan family loses their

money, so he t- returns to Richmond and that's when h- again, the Allan

family is like, "You have to support yourself because- Yeah, we can't

support you … we can't support you."

Yeah.

So that's when he enlists in the Army in 1827, and he serves at Fort Independence

in Boston Harbor, , he actually gets promoted, to the highest rank he could

be, sergeant major for the artillery.

It's the highest rank he could be as a non-commissioned officer,

and then he sought to end his five-year enlistment early.

his commanding officer said that they would let him out of his enlistment if

he reconciled with the Allan family, so he has to write back to the Allan

family saying, you know, "Can I come back and can I reconcile with you?"

And they're kinda unsympathetic to his pleas.

Interesting.

so the benefactor's wife dies in 1829, and this softens Allan's

heart, and so he agrees to support his desire to attend West Point.

Oh.

So.

Okay.

'Cause I, I, so back then, to get to West Point, to go to

West Point, you had to have-

Mm-hmm

I, so I, I assume it sounds like someone-

Up an appointment from-

An, an appointment from someone or someone that supports you- Mm-hmm … going.

Okay.

Yep.

And so he's discharged from the military in 1829, and he secures,

a placement in West Point.

And so that's when he moves back to Baltimore for a short period of time

and stays with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and meets her daughter,

Virginia Clemm, who's his first cousin.

And, and that's who he marries, right?

Yes.

And he also says that's the first time he's heard very, first

words of encouragement, someone who actually believes in him.

I think that's where that love starts as well.

Oh,

okay.

So it's the first time he felt somebody actually, like, you know, believe him.

So did, does he decide not to go run off to West Point?

No, he goes to West Point.

He, he becomes a cadet July 1st, 1830, but that's when he, he, meets them.

Okay.

Like, he, he meets his first cousin.

Right the same…

Okay.

Okay.

And kinda sets that connection-

Yep

… with them.

and then the Allan male gets remarried to a second wife and- she wants

nothing to do with these adopted children that are now adults- Gotcha

that really can't stand on their own.

And so,

So they, do they just cut him off?

And so yeah, he's, he's, he's disowned by,

The Allen family

… the Allen family.

Man, he kinda had a, he had it rough.

He did.

And so I think during all of this, he has a rough time at West Point because-

Sure

… he's feeling neglect.

You know, the only father he's ever known-

And the only family he kinda really, truly had Yeah.

And if you realize, he only really got words of encouragement from his

first cousin, Virginia, and her mother.

He's tried for gross negligence of duty at West Point, disobedience, not going

to formations, not going to classes.

And so February 8th, 1831, he goes to, like, a court martial.

he pleads not guilty, t- and asks to be dismissed instead.

Okay.

All right.

So he go- he does go for a short period of time, like basically barely a year-

Yep

… and doesn't, kinda can't hack it and because of a multitude of reasons, right?

Mm-hmm.

It happens to everybody.

Mm-hmm.

and so does he… Then from there, does he come back home to Baltimore?

He does, and what happens, what happens too is he is writing poems during this

time, and his c- fellow cadets love him.

Oh.

Right?

His fellow cadets love the poems 'cause think about all this

time sit- sitting on watch-

Yeah

… and duty.

I mean, a- and, and that's kinda why poetry was a little bit more of a thing-

Yes

… back then.

And so they love to hear him talk.

Yeah.

They love to hear him tell the poems.

And so his first book, he writes a volume of poems titled Poems.

It's financed through his fellow cadets at West Point.

Oh, wow.

Some of them donate as much as 75 cents, and t- a total of $170 was raised.

And so, that really was, I guess, a good example of him

being supported by his fellow-

So that, that kind of a signal to him.

Mm-hmm.

It's like, "Hey, I, I, I've got, I've got something here."

Yep.

And so he returns to Baltimore to his aunt, his brother, and his

cousin, Virginia, March, 1831.

Okay.

So then he gets to Baltimore, and we'll kinda fast-forward 'cause some of the

more fascinating things in his life, a- and I didn't know a lot about that,

about Poe and his background- Mm-hmm

because I think that's interesting.

People ver- kind of pretty familiar with his works, with The Raven and some

of the short stories that he wrote.

Tell-Tale Heart, right?

That's a big one, right?

E- even in high school I think I had to read that.

Yes.

so he kinda gets this publishing career, right?

Yes.

Becomes relatively well-known.

So what, what happens is he's, a- again, publishing, he has to kinda move

around to where the jobs are, right?

And he's working in newspapers, and he's editing, and he's helping.

So there's a Edgar Allan Poe house in Philadelphia.

They believe that's where he wrote The Raven, and they believe that

because there are letters of rejection of The Raven being published,

sent to him in Philadelphia.

Gotcha.

So they believe he finished it there, he wrote it there, and then he was

sending it out to people, and he got- So

he's, he's following work around.

He's following work around.

He, in 1835, so this is 1831, he comes back.

His brother dies in August of 1831.

His brother dies of tuberculosis, so know that this is a common illness at the time.

and so he, in 1835, w- will marry his cousin, Virginia Clemm.

Now, he's 26 at the time.

She is 13.

Oof.

Now, she-

Different time

… different time.

She will claim to be older, because at 13 you need your parents' permission

to marry, so she claims to be older.

But, they're married for 11 years until she dies.

Wow.

So, and he really, people believe that there w- it really was a love match,

like they really loved each other.

but she will follow him around, and she gets sick early on, with tuberculosis,

and he helps take care of her.

She's coughing up blood.

So her mother lives with them as well, Maria Clemm- Okay

to help take care of her, and she really helps take care of Poe.

Like, she mends his clothes.

I remember when he's in Philadelphia, his clothes are threadbare.

Mm.

Like, he doesn't even have enough money to buy a second suit, and so

she's constantly fixing the suit.

So you have to realize, as a writer, he's barely making ends meet.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

he's writing, again, master of the macabre, master of the

first detective novel, really.

He's writing these, what we think of today as masterpieces.

Yeah But they're so new, and to get them to the public, to get the public to

read them and see them, a lot of times people would write in, serials, right?

They would post, like, a page in a newspaper every week, and the

story would go on and on and on.

A lot of famous authors started that way, Dickens.

but this is kinda what he's doing, so he's following the jobs around

Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston.

And, and so this is kind of how his life keeps, progressing, but he comes

into contact with another writer- Yes

who's going to actually try to sabotage Poe's life, ends up making Poe's life.

Yeah, and so this was, this was interesting, 'cause we were talking a

little bit about this yesterday before we came up to record, and I said, "Hey,

do you read, read a lot about after Poe died?" Because I started doing my

own kind of just quick, again, kind of jokingly non-historian research, and

one of the things that I discovered was Poe, right, wasn't really super

famous at the time, like you said, so he didn't have necessarily a, a reputation.

Mm-mm.

He didn't have this reputation that we know of him today of this kind of…

His work i- is kind of s- read and thought of in this kind of dark, moody,

you know, like you said, the master of the macabre-type way, and that really

wasn't there even when he passed in, in 1849 or just before he passed.

So you have to understand, Poe is…

I love him because he takes his writing very seriously,

and he thinks he's really good.

Yeah, yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

And so much so that he alienates other writers.

He accuses Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism.

Oh, really?

Wa- Longfellow never responds.

He publicly accuses him of it.

So he- And

Longfellow's a big name

and that's a big name, and he's well-known and popular.

And so Poe is one of these people, like, he really doesn't care about how it looks.

He only cares about the art, right?

And how that looks.

And so, Virginia s- she als- show first signs of consumptions,

of tuberculosis in 1842.

I think at this time they actually live in, they might be in New York at

this time, and she passes away in 1845.

and he is so- distraught, right?

Or 184- it's 1845, 1846.

she is, he is so distraught when he loses his wife.

but right before that, January 29th, 1845, The Raven is published.

Yeah.

It appears in the Evening Mirror, and it becomes a popular sensation.

So once it's actually published, it does make him a household name.

He's only paid $9 for it, though.

So this is the issue, is people start to, "Who's this Poe guy?

This is a really good poem."

Yeah.

But Poe ain't making money.

$9, which equivalent is 300 bucks today, is what he made, for The Raven, the poem

that ga- makes him a household name.

Now, household name means people say his name.

"Who's this Poe guy? He's, he's a long fellow." Yeah.

"He's, a Washington Irving." But, but he's not in the upper echelons

now of the writing community.

So he's still moving around, and then it'll be January 30th, 1847,

two years later, Virginia will die at that cottage in New York.

this is where he's completely unstable after his wife's death.

He will attempt to court other women.

this is one of the issues that gets him in trouble with Griswold, because

other women do respond to Poe.

Now, Griswold, I think I was mentioning him earlier.

Yeah.

This is the other writer, one of the ones that he had alienated, and I think one

of the things, there was some animosity between them, what I was reading, was

Griswold was another writer, I think came out with a kind of a book of

poetry, p- tried to publish a book, and had asked Poe, "Hey," said, "Hey,

you're, y- you write poetry as well.

Can you review this?

Can you write a review?" Right?

And when they would do this, it's not like they're doing it inside the book

like a blurb like they do nowadays.

They're doing this, like, writing a review in the local

newspaper or something like that.

And I guess Poe is like, "Sure," and then just tears him a new one and s-

just says, "Hey, this is, this is trash."

And so he kinda, like, stabs him in the back.

I mean, Poe, that was kind of a jerk move, you know?

And so Griswold is like, you know, "Forget you, man." Like, w- what the heck?

So what happens is Griswold is, he's a interesting character

if you read about him.

I think a little bit of a narcissist, which doesn't, that- I

mean, so is Poe

so is Poe, but Griswold wasn't as good as Poe.

And what Griswold did, he was called a literary, anthropologist, and

I think that's where they gather a bunch of other people's poetry

and put it into one chronicle.

When he put it into one a- like, annual, edition, and Poe, A, was mad that he

was included in that because he didn't feel like he picked the best people, and

Poe did not wanna be, Wanted to be Like

associated with them

associated with that kind of poetry.

Griswold thought that he did a good job picking these po- poets, and I think

he doctored some of the stuff up, and Poe called him out on all of that.

And then they were both hired by the same writing house, to do edits of different

articles, and Griswold made more.

Yeah.

And so then Poe was always upset about that as well.

Yeah, I read that.

So Griswold was very, again, y- you know, insulted-

Yeah

… that Poe did this.

Poe is now a household name.

Griswold's not a household name.

Griswold is just collecting other people's poetry, so he's

not a great writer himself.

He's trying to make his name on other people's writing.

And they also, I, I don't know if they try to court the same woman, but they

come in contact with the same woman.

Yeah, and I think what I read was- Osgood … it was, there was kind

of a woman that was also a writer.

She was a writer.

She was also a writer.

Mm-hmm.

And so Griswold was interested in her, but she was kind of more interested in Poe.

She kinda, kinda had, had eyes for Poe, and so, and I think, I don't know if

this was right after Poe's wife had passed- Mm-hmm … or whatever like that.

But, so again, you know, Griswold's paying Poe to kinda write a review.

Poe writes a scathing review after taking the money.

Yes.

The job thing, Griswold's getting paid more, Poe's bitter

about it, a woman, right?

So there is no lost love between these two.

And that woman, I mean, to her credit, Griswold's just saying, w- "I like your

work, and here's, I'm gonna, I'm gonna write you a little bit of my stuff

to woo you." And she's like, "Huh?

That's horrible." Poe writes her beautiful love poems, and she's like,

"Oh, this is, this guy's got it."

Yeah.

And that's why she responds more to Poe's poetry, and so she likes Poe a lot more.

Griswold is very rebuffed by that, so it just adds fuel to the fire.

after Poe dies, I think Griswold was kind of like waiting.

Yeah, so, so that's what I read as well, and that w- what I found so interesting

was Griswold, spoiler alert, was essentially the guy who gave Poe his

reputation as this master of the macabre.

Yeah.

And we'll kinda walk you guys through that here in just a second, but

essentially what I read was- After Poe passed, Griswold went into action.

He sprung, sprung into action right away and wrote this just scathing

obituary of Edgar Allan Poe.

Yeah, so Rufus Wilmot Griswold wrote this highly slanted, high-profile obituary

under a pseudonym that was published the very next day after Poe died.

So this is what creates all this mystery.

How did Poe die?

Why was he found in different clothes in the, the gutters of Baltimore?

How is he so sick?

And then he's, he's mumbling words, and then he dies.

Was he poisoned?

For him to have this obituary, this scathing obituary ready to be published

the day after his death, it just, it lends itself to more of a story here.

It, it does, and before we go deeper into that, I do wanna talk quickly

about kind of the mystery around his death, 'cause there's a couple theories.

Sure.

Right?

So Poe passed.

They, they found him wandering the streets of Baltimore kind

of muttering incoherently.

I believe he actually ended up in a hospital but ended up passing

in a hospital- He did, mm-hmm

after a couple days.

Wasn't in his own clothes.

Just… And everybody's like, "What in the world happened here?" Well,

one of the things that I read that I found very interesting was there

was, like, a, a theory of, they call it co-oping for election fraud.

So at the time, it seems like there would be, kinda political factions that

would basically try to grab people and say, "Hey, go vote for this person,"

but they'd make them change clothes.

And so they'd make them change clothes, go, go do the vote, and then have them-

Sure … hightail it out of there.

There's no voter ID There's

no voter ID, right?

In

1849, yeah.

And so, so that was, that was one theory was, you know, these ruffians

had grabbed Poe and said, "Hey, change your clothes and go vote for this guy."

And, you know, who knows?

Maybe he had been… You know, something else had been going on.

But I thought that was just kind of interesting, and I was like,

"Oh, it, it kinda fits," right?

Sure.

And then there's some other theories as well.

Yeah, so again, because- So he dies 1849.

Remember Virginia, his wife who he adored, dies in 1847, so

two years of a downward spiral.

I would think Rufus Griswold would just have to wait for the inevitable.

Yeah.

Because Poe was already on his own downward f- downfall.

He falls into alcoholism.

He's getting sick on his own.

He can't afford his own clothing, his own care.

Yeah,

he's spiraling.

He's spiraling, so he's kinda waiting for that.

But the way it happens, the circumstances around his death almost feels

like it was pushed over the edge.

And because this obituary published by Griswold, and he uses the pseudonym

Ludwig, appears in the New-York Tribune just, the very next day.

And, and in this, in this high-profile obituary that basically everybody

reads, he talks about Poe as a lunatic, a person who walks the streets in

madness and melancholy, lips moving in indistinct curses with his eyes

upturned during passionate prayers.

And what sells, right, what gets clicks today is that sensationalism.

Yeah.

And so this obituary that creates this poor down-hearted man as this scathing

scandal- scandal, scoundrel, it, it sells.

A- and if you think about it, that is not your typical obituary.

So if people are out there reading the paper and they read this obituary,

they're like, "Oh, my gosh, look at this.

Who's this guy he's writing about?

Like, what is going on?" So he, he almost brought more attention to Poe

than he ever would've gotten in the first place. And one of the lines that

I read from the obituary that he led off with was, "Edgar Allan Poe is dead.

He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday.

This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it." So he, I

mean, he leads off- He pulls you right in.

He pulls you right in.

You're like, man, what is… And I'm sure it was a long one because Griswold

probably had a few things to say.

Yeah, and so, it, so it's further published throughout the country.

Once this is published, and again, it's so scathing- Yeah … and that's gonna sell,

it's reprinted, which a lot of newspapers did at the time, throughout the country.

Everyone wants to read this sensational obituary.

And, and so the an- announcement, you know, s- was just so widespread, but

then it soon… Ludwig, people wanted to know who this, who was this Ludwig guy,

and it's soon identified as Griswold.

and then this grudge comes out.

But What Griswold also does, again, this man, is he wants to really stick it to

Poe, is the only person left alive at this point who has the literary rights

to Poe's writing is his mother-in-law.

So when we visit the Poe grave, I tell you he's buried beside his

mother-in-law/aunt and his wife/cousin.

So Maria Clemm, his mother-in-law, is also left destitute, right?

Her daughter has died.

Her son-in-law has died, and she has the rights to his writing.

And Griswold approaches her before he po- before it comes out that he's the one who

wrote this obituary, "I will mentor… I will take good care of his writing.

I will make sure it gets published.

I will make sure you get paid.

I will make sure you get taken care of." And she has nothing at the time,

and she believes him, so she signs over the liter- literary rights to

Edgar Allan Poe's work to Griswold.

Yeah, which is crazy.

Oh, my, it's just so… He's so devious.

And then, and then it says what he, what he did with that, and then

he, like, right away he published, like, let's see what it says here.

A memoir of the author.

A memoir of the author, right?

And now Griswold, what he did, and we'll talk more about how Griswold was

eventually found out and discredited, but what he did in that memoir is he

physically altered and forged letters that Poe had written, making it look

like Poe was a blackmailer and a traitor to his friends and all this stuff.

But all his friends at the time, when this stuff comes out, they're like, "Wait a

second, this isn't true." But you didn't have YouTube and Facebook and a way to

publicly say, like, "Hey, I'm his friend.

That's not how it actually was." So it took time for people to actually go in.

You know, I, I wanna say the next one was how it actually backfired on

Griswold was there was someone here.

Hold on.

Well, no.

So it's gonna backfire in a way that he doesn't even expect because it becomes

a very popular accepted biographal, biography source of Poe, but people love

that he's this dangerous, devious- This

dark

… dark man who writes these dark stories, and they must come from

a actual life experience, right?

He's writing about his tortured soul and the things he's seen

and the things he's done, right?

Tell-Tale Heart is about a heart being buried under- Yeah … a floorboard.

Yeah.

And it keeps beating.

So he depicts Poe as the actual guy who could have done this, and

people- Love that sensationalist

Yeah, it was, it was such an interesting kinda look back, because at the time

these things were just happening.

Griswold had such a vendetta against Poe that he wrote this obituary that

ended up getting more popular than he wrote this book, and people were like,

"Ah, this is amazing." And so now they kind of are seeking out this, this dark,

tortured author's works, making Poe even more famous than he actually was.

And then, you know, later,

But later his real friends come forward- Yeah

with the actual letters.

Yeah.

And the actual… This is what really… He wasn't like this at all.

He actually was a, a very melancholy guy.

He was a, he was a tortured soul, but he was a good guy.

He was not sensational.

Yeah, so Sela- Sarah Helen Whitman, who was a friend o- of his and

I think another, another writer, wrote kind of like one of the

initial true rebuttals in 1860.

And so in 1860 she came out, with a work called Edgar Allan Poe and His

Critics, and basically used her own personal knowledge and kind of rebutted

all the things that Griswold was saying.

And then even later after that in the 1870s to the 1880s, John Henry Ingram

went through and actually kinda did the forensic- you know, detective

work to go and find some of these letters that were doctored, and was

actually able to uncover and prove that some of these, these letters

that were in the, the initial Griswold supposed memoir, right, a biography,

that were altered, he proved it.

Yeah.

And so he, he proved it and got this very detailed researched work out

completely discrediting Griswold.

And so everything over time just com- com- flip- flipped, you

know, a 180 on Griswold, and he kinda got his comeuppance.

So yeah, Poe dies in 1849.

Griswold will publish this in 1850, and Griswold dies in 1857.

So for seven years he really champions this, pushes it hard,

creates this whole persona for Poe.

It backfires on him.

People wanna know more about Poe.

They wanna read his stuff.

They wanna … Who is this real, bad guy, and what did he write?

And so in 1860, after Griswold has died, is when the first people start

to dismantle this, and it continues to be dismantled for about 15 years later.

And this gains notoriety in casting Griswold as the bad guy- Yeah … and

Griswold as this terrible person.

As this,

as this petty-

Yes … you

know, rival.

But Poe keeps the myst- mystique.

Poe keeps that persona.

Poe gets more popular than ever.

Yeah.

And that's why you read him in school today, and that's

why his grave is so important.

Now, what happens is when he's buried in the, old Westminster

Burial Ground, there's not even enough money for a, a marker for him.

He's buried in his family plot.

Again, he comes from this aristocrat family of, an early, business family

of Baltimore, so they have a nice family plot in one of the original

burial grounds, and he's buried there with a rock that says 80 on it.

That's it.

Right?

once his mother-in-law passes, she's buried beside him.

Virginia is left in New York.

Virginia is put into a friend's tomb, and because Poe can't afford to bury her at

the time, and she's forgotten basically.

And so the people of Baltimore, because he's become so popular and

bec- people visit his grave, and they go to the folklore, and they wanna

visit on Halloween and read The Raven to him, they start a collection to

get him a marker, to have something in the cemetery to commemorate him.

Well- Takes about 25 years, and they've ga- they've gathered enough

money that it is too big to put in the actual Poe family plot location.

If you s- if you go there and you see our video and see the actual

location, I take you to both, it would take up the whole space basically.

Now, in the Poe family plot is, of course, his, his dad is there, his

brother is there, Poe is there.

He's, he was there with his mother-in-law.

So they move Poe and his mother-in-law to the front of the cemetery, and that,

when Virginia was buried in a tomb of a friend, that cemetery in New York, as you

can imagine, as New York expanded, became forgotten, and they were moving bones.

And one of Poe's friends knew Virginia was there, and went

himself and collected her bones-

Wow

and saved them.

So when they moved him to the front of the Baltimore cemetery in 1875

with the new marker, he said, "I think he would like to be buried with his

wife, Virginia. I actually have saved her bones. I have them here." And

so she was also moved there as well.

So she wasn't originally buried in the back area, and she was moved there

when they moved the original stone.

So this is all garnered, though, after his life.

Yeah.

Right?

This popularity of Poe is after his life.

He's originally buried with a rock.

That's how much popularity and money he had at the time.

And so really, I, I j- I don't know if you wanna thank Griswold, but

we think of Poe today, we honor Poe today, the mystery of him.

Even when I visited there, there's so much, atmosphere around his grave.

So many people still visit there.

Yeah.

Right?

It's very popular to go see Edgar Allan Poe's grave.

The Baltimore Ravens are named for him.

I don't know if this would've happened without the conspiracy

to slander him- Yeah … as hard as Griswold did after he died.

Yeah.

It's, it's pretty wild, and so that's why in the intro when I mentioned kinda

you s- the, his monument, you know, the, the memorial for him and his, his

wife and, his mother-in-law, it's very obvious, v- easy to see from the street.

You can see it through, you know, if the, if the cemetery's not open.

So go, you know, watch our video, or if you're in Baltimore, go check it out.

his other original plot, right, they do have a headstone

with a raven on it, right?

So there's been things that have kind of, been built up over

time in the Poe family plot.

Now, tell me about the toaster.

So again, famous deaths provide more colorful characters to come out and

commemorate them, and so you'll get that with Rudolph Valentino, that famous actor.

there was a mysterious lady who would always come to his grave dressed in

black on the anniversary of his death.

With Edgar Allan Poe, you get the toaster.

So a gentleman who would go on the anniversary of his death-

I believe so

… and bring three roses and, drink, was it bourbon?

I think it was c- like cognac or something.

Cognac-

Yeah … to him.

And leave the, drink half the bottle or take a couple shots and then leave the

rest for him, and did this for years.

How many years was it?

It

was like dec- decades.

Decades.

And then his son did it.

Yeah, picked up, so apparently it was, there was probably some

local people who knew who it was.

So people, even when I was there, there were three dead roses on the grave, and

people do it in honorance, in remembrance, right, of not only Poe, but of this

person who honored Poe for so long.

and so people will leave the three roses.

I d- have not been there on Halloween or his, anniversary of his death.

I bet you cognac is left there as well.

Yeah, so, so reading my notes here, it looks like the, the toaster tradition

started 100 years after he passed.

Okay.

So in 1949-

Okay

… someone started it in Baltimore, did it for decades, and then that person passed.

His son picked up the tradition in 2009, did it for a couple more years,

and then I think the locals, I think a local in Baltimore, someone said, "Hey,

now this is kind of officially done."

But now the, they'll, they'll do it during the day.

They'll go on Halloween, they'll go on the anniversary of his death, right?

I'm sure there's local tour groups and stuff like that, that, that do it.

And the three roses are supposed to represent Poe, his

mother-in-law, and his, his wife.

Yeah.

So it's for Maria and Virginia.

but we've, I mean, we feel the legacy of Poe today.

you especially, I mean, like your family history with Alfred Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock is a Poe fan.

Yeah.

He said he started to do, "I liked Edgar Allan Poe's stories and so

I began to write suspense films."

Oh, wow.

Right?

So-

That's a direct, yeah, link there.

The direct link.

Poe has inspired so many of us today when it comes to suspense,

and the macabre, and the Gothic.

I would even say, you know, the reason Stephen King is so popular is because

it's all the foundation laid by Poe.

And so we celebrate him.

It was an honor to visit him, and, if, if you really w- if you wanna

see the location, don't forget to download our app, historyordrive.com.

I'll take you right there to where he's located in Baltimore.

He's right at the front of the cemetery, and, he's waiting there for you.

As you walk out of the iron gates of the Westminster Burying Ground

and leave Edgar Allan Poe to his eternal rest, the mystery of the man

still lingers in the Baltimore air.

It is entirely fitting that America's master of horror

didn't get a neat, tidy ending.

Instead, he left us with an unsolved puzzle, a final chapter written in

delirium, missing clues, and a legacy that grew from a forgotten, unmarked

plot into a towering literary monument.

Standing by his gravesite reminds us that while the body may fail, a

brilliant, tortured mind can echo through the centuries, capturing

the imagination of every generation that dares to peer into the dark.

If you ever find yourself in Baltimore, take a detour into the shadows,

visit Westminster Hall, and look for the raven carved into the stone.

Pay your respects to the man who taught us how to love a good mystery.

Just keep an eye out for a cloaked stranger carrying three roses.

We'll talk to you next time.

Thank you.

This has been a Walk With History production.

Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Bennie.

Episode researched by Jennifer Bennie.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.

Talk With History is supported by our community at thehistoryroadtrip.com.

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