The Mysterious Poe Toaster Revealed?

Edgar Allan Poe was an American Romantic, a journalist and a writer in the populist genres, the inventor of the modern detective story, and a poet whose melodic narrative ballads remain perennial favorites 150 years after his death. He was an orphan, a melancholy individualist, famed for his tales of the macabre and the mysterious. Mystery surrounds the events of his death, and in the 20th century, a mystery attached itself to his grave site: The Poe Toaster. Since 1949, exactly 100 years after he was buried in Baltimore, a mysterious, unidentified stranger has appeared at Poe’s grave each year on the night of his January 19th birthday to leave a tribute offering: three roses and a half-full bottle of cognac. Now a Poe fan and former ad man from Baltimore has come forward with the claim that he is the anonymous Poe Toaster.

from The Baltimore Sun:
“Who knows who started Poe toast?,” by Abigail Tucker
“Three red roses and a bottle of cognac. These enigmatic offerings, placed at the grave of beloved suspense writer Edgar Allan Poe, have long been at the heart of one of the city’s real-life mysteries. Who leaves the presents each year on January 19, his birthday? Who is the so-called Poe Toaster?... Sam Porpora, a life-long Poe lover, claims to be ready to share some answers. The 92-year-old one-time restaurateur and ad man said that he dreamed up the tradition in the late 1960s, as a publicity stunt to aid the cash-strapped church that owned Westminster cemetery, where the great author is said to be buried.... ‘It was a great promotion,’ said Porpora, who was involved with the preservation of the historic cemetery for years. ‘I restored Poe to greatness.’”

from Associated Press (in The San Francisco Chronicle):
“Poe Fan Takes Credit for Grave Legend,” by Wiley Hall
“The legend was almost too good to be true. For decades, a mysterious figure dressed in black, his features cloaked by a wide-brimmed hat and scarf, crept into a churchyard to lay three roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. Now, a 92-year-old man who led the fight to preserve the historic site says the visitor was his creation.”

Related articles:
Our profile of Edgar Allan Poe, American Romantic
The Empty House Tour: Tom Devaney explores Edgar Allan Poe’s Philadelphia house (2004)
A new Poe(try) film: The Death of Poe (2006)