Photos of Edgar Allan Poe sites in Baltimore -

I can still remember reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” as an eighth-grader. The story is about an unnamed narrator who kills a man because of his unnerving pale blue eyes. Okay, what?

Anyway, that story has stuck in my head for decades — I still remember the macabre description of the man’s heart continuing to beat under the floorboards where it was placed after he was killed. Yikes.

Of course, I’m far from the only person affected by Poe’s work. Widely regarded in the literary world, Poe is best-known for mysterious, and kind of spooky, stories and poems such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and, yes, “The Raven.”

Baltimore has definitely embraced its ties to the legendary author, too. Even the city’s football team, the Ravens, is named after one of his best-known poems. Poe is also buried there, at Westminster Hall.

Poe is so beloved in Baltimore that for decades, an anonymous person marked his birthday “by slipping into the Baltimore cemetery where the writer is buried and leaving three roses and a bottle of French cognac on his grave,” The Washington Post reported in 2004. You can read more about that in this 2012 story by The Post’s Maura Judkis.

What better time to think about Poe’s legacy than Halloween, which is quickly approaching? Turns out, this is exactly what Post photographer Matt McClain was thinking, too. And even better, we’re close to Baltimore, the city where Poe launched his literary career and, sadly, spent his last living moments.

McClain laid out the thoughts that were on his mind as he set out to make photos that evoke Poe’s memory:

Share this articleShare

“No month of the year symbolizes legendary writer Edgar Allan Poe more than October. Not only do his poems and stories evoke the dread and terror that one associates with Halloween, it was also the time of the year that he met his mysterious end in Baltimore.

“A former resident of the city while in his 20s, Poe found his forever home in ‘Charm City’ when he passed away on October 7, 1849.

“As All Hallows Eve approaches, I set out to capture scenes that evoke the writer and his legacy which are still visible in Baltimore.

“While many of the places and sites associated with Poe were demolished long ago, there are some that are capable of conjuring his memory — from the home he lived in during the 1830s to the hospital where he died, the cemetery in which he is buried and a festival that celebrates his legacy.”

McClain’s photos of these places and events show us that Poe’s legacy is definitely not forgotten in Baltimore, even 172 years after his own “nevermore.”

You can find out more about Poe and some of the places in Baltimore that celebrate his memory here.

In Sight is The Washington Post’s photography blog for visual narrative. This platform showcases compelling and diverse imagery from staff members and freelance photographers, news agencies and archives. If you are interested in submitting a story to In Sight, please complete this form.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZL2pu9OonquZoJ3GcH6Pa2hoaWBkf3h7xJ2emqpdlrmtrc1mp6idXam%2Foq%2FErGY%3D