Does Philly really want Poe's body?

Apparently there is a struggle between the literary circles in Philadelphia and in Baltimore, MD as to where Edgar Allan Poe ought to be buried. About a year ago, Poe scholar Edward Pettit published a cover article in City Paper explaining why we should collect the body of Poe from its place of repose in Maryland. Pettit's argument centers on the fact that most of Poe's early successes occurred in this city, and that much of his best work was done here. In fact, he says, no other author can boast such an impressive catalog produced in Philadelphia. Anyone who is familiar with Poe's biography understands why it is so hard to decide where he "should be" buried. He lived and worked in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn and Richmond, VA.

He moved around in part because of his tendency to make enemies, which impeded the advancement his literary career. Baltimore was his place of death and Boston his place of birth, though the latter doesn't much care what becomes of his body. Baltimore's major claim is that that is where he died and has been buried for near 160 years. To be honest, I'm satisfied with that. Is it really imperative that we exhume a corpse more than a century-an- a-half dead? What good would that really do us? It might bring attention to Poe's writing, but putting Poe's work into the public eye is not necessarily the same as encouraging people to read him.

The benefits we might derive from first convincing the authorities and concerned scholars in Baltimore to give up the body and then digging it up, moving it, and reburying it here are hardly worth the effort. Why bother? Pettit points out that the mystery genre was literally invented by Poe in Philadelphia. That's phenomenal. Does the proximity of his putrescent remains really commemorate that? The high level of violent crime in the city inspired Poe to write detective stories. I suggest that we try to reduce the violent crime rate here today. That seems like a fitting tribute, unless you happen to think that we're better of hoping to spawn another literary genius by dint of the gruesome risk of living here.

Really, while we're on the topic, I can think of a dozen other problems we might want to solve before worrying about who should or should not be buried here. Here's a good one: how many kids in our city school system can actually read "The Pit and the Pendulum"? Really, anything you want to point to in Poe could become metaphor for something that affects living people in Philadelphia. The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" was dangerously insane- what is the state of our mental health care facilities? "The Fall of the House of Usher" - hey, we have a bunch of homeless people here, I bet they would like a place to sleep, while we're trying to accommodate Poe. You see where I"m gong with this- it's not that hard, folks. The last thing we should be worried about is Poe's place of burial. Most people have a thousand things they want to pay attention to that don't matter. Moving someone's body here is a ridiculous addition to that list.