Baltimore Has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him

By IAN URBINA

Published: September 5, 2008

BALTIMORE — Edgar Allan Poe never lived in one city for long, and ever since he died and was buried here in 1849 this city has claimed him as its own.

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

Edgar Allan Poe, master of the macabre and a man of many cities.

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Times Topics: Edgar Allan Poe

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

Edward Pettit, a Poe scholar, argues that Poe’s remains should be moved from his grave in Baltimore, saying that it was Philadelphia that framed Poe’s outlook.

Jonathan Hanson for The New York Times

“Philadelphia can keep its broken bell and its cheese steak, but Poe’s body isn’t going anywhere,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House in Baltimore. He will debate Edward Pettit in January.

Marty Katz for The New York Times

Edgar Allan Poe’s grave, now in Baltimore.

But last year Edward Pettit, a Poe scholar in Philadelphia, began arguing that Poe’s remains belong in Philadelphia. Poe wrote many of his most noteworthy works there and, according to Mr. Pettit, that city’s rampant crime and violence in the mid-19th century framed Poe’s sinister outlook and inspired his creation of the detective fiction genre.

“So, Philadelphians, let’s hop in our cars, drive down I-95 and appropriate a body from a certain Baltimore cemetery,” Mr. Pettit wrote in an article for the Philadelphia City Paper in October. “I’ll bring the shovel.”

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/06poe.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/10/04/were-taking-poe-back