Wednesday, April 22, 2009

POE SQUARED: Boston Mayor to Honor Edgar's Hub Roots


Mystery fans and fans of Edgar Allan Poe may be interested to hear that on Monday, April 27th, Boston, Massachusetts Mayor Thomas M. Menino will declare the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South “Edgar Allan Poe Square.” The dedication is the result of the efforts of BC English Professor Paul Lewis to get Boston to re-claim the author during the bicentennial anniversary of his birth in Boston.

Professor Paul Lewis's work on The Raven Returns Edgar Allan Poe Bicentennial Year Celebration is detailed at the Boston College University Libraries website.

Edgar Allan Poe was born Jan. 19, 1809 at 62 Carver Street, near the intersection of Broadway, a since-demolished crossroads not far from the site of the new Poe Square. Poe served in the United States Army at Boston’s Fort Independence and signed his first published work, “By a Bostonian.” But his tumultuous relationship with his native city and its literary icons sent him to Baltimore and Philadelphia, cities that also lay claim to Poe’s legacy.

"The Masque of the Red Death", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Raven" are some of Poe's most famous works.

The dedication of Edgar Allan Poe Square in honor of the Bicentennial Anniversary of Poe’s 1809 birth in Boston will take place on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 11:00 AM at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South (off Boston Common).

You can contact Ed Hayward at the Office of Public Affairs at Boston College for more information. Mr. Hayward can be reached by phone at (617) 552-4826 or by email at ed.hayward(at)bc(dot)edu.

4 comments:

Rob Velella said...

Hooray! I've been looking forward to this since I heard it announced in January.

Oh, by the way, all the Poe works you mention should be in quotes, not italics!

Cheryl said...

Thanks for stopping by Rob. I'm glad they contacted me about it to, as I wouldn't have know about it otherwise.

As for Poe's titles, according to The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer, page 121, Section 9, "Italics are used for titles of long poems...books, magazines, newspapers..."

This book comes from the publisher of the Strunk and White books, and was sold with two Strunk and White titles. So, I'm thinking that she is correct...though no one is perfect.

Cheryl

Unknown said...

Actually, longer works (novels, movies, albums, etc.) are italicized, whereas shorter works (poems, short stories, song titles, etc.) go in quotes. Since all of the works listed are short stories, they should all be in quotes. If you were writing about a collection of Poe's stories, that would be in italics.

Cheryl said...

I stand corrected, and thanks for pointing that out. As I see on Page 102, Section 6 of Shertzer's book that quotes would be correct for these works, and I will gladly make the correction.

While my son loves Poe's work, I have to admit to being mostly unfamiliar with it; though I did see John Astin on stage as Poe, and he did a splendid job with it.

Cheryl