The Fall of the House of Edgar

From Dave Brigham:

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809, but I don't think he'd be too crazy about this statue near Boston Common and the accompanying plaque (see below) if he were able to claw his way out of the Baltimore graveyard where he was interred at the age of 40. Titled "Poe Returning to Boston," Stefanie Rocknak's sculpture imagines the horror and suspense writer "finally coming home" with a "trunk full of ideas and worldwide success."

Poe left the Hub of the Universe at age 3 after both of his parents died and he was adopted by a wealthy tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia. Poe spent time in Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia, but did return to Boston on occasion, according to this New York Times article about the unveiling of Rocknak's statue.

Still, he didn't care for the Boston literary scene, according to everyone on the Internet. “Bostonians are well bred — as very dull persons very generally are," he was quoted in the above-linked article.

A few blocks away from the statue of Poe and a raven ("Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore!'") is a small plaque on a quiet and quite lovely side street.

This is not where Poe was born. That building is gone, as is the street it was on, according to this Atlas Obscura post. I read a handful of Poe's stories when I was in high school. I have vague recollections of "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." The guy who wrote these stories, I thought as a teenager, was pretty messed up. Orphaned. Left out of his adoptive father's will. Cheated on by a girlfriend. Widowed and devastated at age 37. Dead at age 40 of mysterious causes. No wonder.