by Martha Steger, special correspondent

If you hear a tapping at your chamber door in the wee hours of Monday, Jan. 19, it will most likely be the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe - past, present and future, as he’ll be omnipresent during 2009 – but nowhere more fun (or more authentic) than in Baltimore and Richmond during his bicentennial birthday celebration.

Get off to a head-start tomorrow, on Jan. 16, at the Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad St., when the U. S. Postal Service stages a first-day-of-issue ceremony at 11 a.m. in honor of Poe’s 200th birthday, which is free to the public.  Then, on Sunday, Jan. 18, head for Baltimore’s birthday party at Westminster Hall, 4:30 p.m., the day before Poe’s birthday. You can make it back to Richmond in time for the beginning of the 24-Hour Birthday Bash at the Poe Museum, 12:01 a.m.- 11:59 p.m., 1914-16 East Main Street.

In Baltimore, events also include historical tours of the catacombs under Westminster Hall and Burying Grounds, site of Poe’s graves (yes, there were two!), and special exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Enoch Pratt. Free. 

Visitors to both cities can witness appearances by Poe as portrayed by his professional personas—and take part in amontillado-tasting events commemorating Poe’s famous short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” (which put this sherry on the map for non-drinkers).

Travelers seeking literary background for all things Poe will want to do full tours of the sites in Baltimore and Richmond. Yet, if the weekend is too early, try stopping at the University of Virginia to see Poe’s room as well as the special exhibit there, March 2-Aug. 1, 2009. 

Soon after the death of his mother, actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe – just before his third birthday, Poe was taken into the family of John Allan, a Richmond tobacco merchant.  Eventually rejected by Allan, Poe enlisted in the U. S. Army and received a discharge two years later. It was natural for him, a grandson of a Baltimore Revolutionary War patriot, to move to Baltimore, where he lived at 203 North Amity St., with his grandmother, his Aunt Maria Clemm and two cousins. One of whom, Virginia Clemm, he married in 1835 when she was 13.

Located in a part of northwest Baltimore, the tiny house is a good example of early 19th-century working-class living quarters.  It is probable that many of Poe’s early short stories were written here.  China from the Allan home in Richmond and Poe’s lap-desk from the University of Virginia are also on display, as they were among items sold at auction many years ago, ending up in the Baltimore museum.

Poe’s gravesite at Westminster Burying Ground in downtown Baltimore at the corner of Fayette and Greene streets, is well worth seeing, as the grave was moved from one corner to another in the churchyard.  An anonymous “Poe toaster” has left a single rose and a glass of brandy at the gravesite in the early hours of Jan. 19 since 1949. 

The Edgar Allan Poe Birthday Celebration in Baltimore has been around since 1980; special events for 2009 are at http://www.Nevermore2009.com and http://www.poebicentennial.com, the major event being a reenactment of Poe’s funeral on Oct. 10, 2009, when a horse-drawn funeral hearse will take the poet’s casket from the house on Amity Street to Westminster for burial.

Richmond’s Poe Museum boasts the world’s finest collection of Edgar Allan Poe manuscripts, letters, first editions, memorabilia and personal belongings – which Richmonders have always cherished as shown by commemorations of Poe’s birthday dating back to the 113th anniversary of his birth in 1922.  The museum provides a retreat into early 19th-century Richmond, where Poe lived and worked.  It showcases his life and career by documenting his accomplishments with pictures and verse and focusing on his 13 years in Richmond.  Opened in 1922 in the Old Stone House, the museum is only blocks away from Poe’s first Richmond home and his first place of employment, the Southern Literary Messenger (demolished in 1915) at 15th and Main streets.

Although Poe’s boyhood bed, his trunk, walking stick, a brocade vest and even a lock of hair are here, the garden with its Poe shrine at the back is a centerpiece of the museum – and one of the areas of interest for Hampton Hotels, which contributed$35,000 to the museum when it designated it a Landmark Legend.  Another highlight inside the Museum is the Poe Memorial on indefinite loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art – but it’s hard to top seeing Poe’s personal notes on Shakespeare and Milton in his meticulous penmanship. 

The museum is planning a map of Richmond for visitors who wish to follow in Poe’s footsteps along streets with Poe connections – or to sites, such as the Richmond Public Library exhibit (July 3-Aug. 2) and that of the Library of Virginia (July 18-Oct. 31).  Like Baltimore’s annual “toaster,” you may feel moved to leave a personal birthday tribute along the way.  Visit http://www.poe200th.com, the Web site maintained by the museum with Poe events listings throughout Virginia.