Poe Toaster is the media sobriquet used to refer to an unidentified person (or probably more than one person in succession) who, for over seven decades, paid an annual tribute to American author Edgar Allan Poe by visiting the cenotaph marking his original grave in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early hours of January 19, Poe’s birthday. The shadowy figure, dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat and white scarf, would pour himself a glass of cognac and raise a toast to Poe’s memory, then vanish into the night, leaving three roses in a distinctive arrangement and the unfinished bottle of cognac. [from Wikipedia]
The long standing Poe Toaster tradition ended in 2009 with no explanation. In 2016 the Maryland Historical Society organized a competition to pick someone to take up the mantle.
