Philadelphia, Baltimore Battle Over Edgar Allan Poe
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Philadelphia and Baltimore are locked in a dispute over which city has the better claim on Edgar Allan Poe.
The writer, novelist, editor and critic is famously buried in Baltimore, where he died 158 years ago this month. But some scholars say the master of the macabre was living in Philadelphia when he produced much of his best work — including some of the first detective mysteries ever written.
The debate started a few weeks ago when lit-blogger Edward Pettit proposed a "literary grave robbing" in a cover story for the Philadelphia City Paper.
The Baltimore Sun shot back with an editorial titled, "We Have the Body, and We're Keeping Him."
The Philadelphia Inquirer offered its own contribution to the debate in verse.
With the writer's 200th birthday coming in 2009, Poe scholars in both towns hope the publicity will stir interest.
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