STEWART COPELAND

200 years ago today, Edgar Allan Poe was born. Janaury 19, 1809 was the birth of the great American write who gave us in his short 40 year life such great tales and poems such as the Raven, Tell Tale Heart and many others. Arguably the first great American author, he greatly influenced horror, fantasy, and detective stories. Plus, he gives American school boys an author they can enjoy amoung all those classic American authors of Hawthorne, etc.

So cheers to the great Poe today.

I always looked forward to the Poe section of any American Literature class I took in college or high school. I re-read the tales every few years. My favorite is "The Cask of Amontillado."

In honor -- I am spinning Alan Parson's Project -- Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

As close as I live to Richmond and Baltimore, I'm ashamed to admit that I have yet to visit Poe's old haunts. I need to rectify that this year.

And I would love to watch the Cask of Amontillado mini-opera again!!!!

You also live near HL Mencken's grave, the suggested epitaph of which is my sig line on Facebook:

'If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl'.

(Mencken didn't actually have this carved on his tombstone, regrettably...)