It’s amazing that cities will fight over the right to call dead celebrities their native son, but here we are, some 200 years after the death of the legendary Edgar Allan Poe, and three cities are fighting over the right to call themselves the home of Poe. The sci-fi geeks at io9 has a great roundup of Poe-related tributes, but it makes me kind of chuckle. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but nobody there (aside from the folks at Lincoln’s birthplace) are pushing to strip Illinois of the title Land of Lincoln.
Really, Baltimore deserves to keep Poe as their own, if only because they’ve done so much to honor him. I mean, they’ve named their NFL franchise after him! They’re the Baltimore Ravens! They even celebrated Poe in the midst of the NFL playoffs! They could call the team the Baltimore Stringers, I guess, in honor of The Wire, but they’ve spent a lot of money on Ravens merchandise and whatnot, so I think it’s best to let Baltimore have its piece of the Poe pie.
Philadelphia and Boston have plenty of other attractions. Baltimore has Poe and… crab cakes? The harbor? John Waters? Natty Boh?
Tags: Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Allen Poe’s 200th Birthday, 200th birthday, authors, Poe, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore Ravens