Poe Museum to celebrate 197 years of Poe-try

Legendary literary figure and Richmond native Edgar Allen Poe would have been 197 on Jan. 19, and in celebration the museum dedicated to him in Shockoe Bottom will be holding an open house featuring “performances, special tours, and birthday cake” this Sunday.

The Poe Museum’s Web site states that Poe has become “America’s Shakespeare” and credits him with having “created or mastered the short story, detective fiction, science fiction, lyric poetry and the horror story.”

Poe was born in Richmond in 1809. He went to the University of Virginia for a year until a gambling problem led to debts that his father refused to pay. After joining the army, Poe began publishing poems and gained quick popularity.

He died in Baltimore in 1849. Appropriately, the circumstances of his death remain shrouded in mystery. Theories range from rabies to carbon monoxide poisoning.

The museum, which opened in 1922 a few blocks from his birthplace, features many of Poe’s letters, manuscripts and belongings. Among the most interesting items came from Poe’s body. “We have a lock his hair,” Museum Shop Manager Anne Marie Beebe said. “After he died up in Baltimore, there was a line of people in front of the hospital waiting to take some.”

Haunts of Richmond, a performance group that “brings local ghost stories and legends to life before your very eyes” will be performing Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” at 1 and 2 p.m. in the museum’s garden.

Following the performances, a walking tour of “Poe’s Shockoe Bottom” will be lead by museum director Chris Semtner and will feature the places where Poe lived and worked.

The open house will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission. Cake will be served at 4 p.m.