RICHMOND, Va. — Edgar Allan Poe, the author who penned some of American literature’s most chilling tales, once called Richmond home.
The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Shockoe Bottom, which chronicles Poe's life, is the perfect place to celebrate this spooky season.
“Poe moved all over the place he had to go where the writing jobs were," Poe Museum curator Chris Semtner said. "But this is where he got a start and he always considered Richmond his hometown so he kept coming back here."
Semtner said the 19th-century author remains fresh to this day.
“Poe's works have survived because he’s really ahead of his time. He tapped into something really modern. He knew that the scariest things weren’t the ghost and the goblins out there. They are in here," Semtner said pointing at his head. "He understood the darkness that lies within us all."
Many of the bricks used to build the museum and its gardens came from demolished buildings where Poe lived and worked.
“October is like our Christmas time here," Poe Museum Marketing Coordinator Hannah Rupy said. "It is awesome. I love it so much. It’s like Halloween every day."
Rupy, who shares a birthday with Poe, says his spirit is felt.
"I think through all of the pieces that we have here and the pieces that we've acquired over the years, you can definitely feel that," she said.
Semtner said their compilation of Poe artifacts is unrivaled.
“This is anything but a static collection. It is continuing to grow. We’re always getting new items just with the past few years we probably got over 100 new old artifacts,” he said.
The museum is home to a piece of the writer’s original coffin from 1849 and Poe’s pocket watch which inspired him while writing one of his most celebrated works, "The Tell-Tale Heart."
“Oh, this is like stepping inside of a Poe story actually holding a piece of that story because imagine this is the mental image he would’ve had when he was describing the watch that story and we’ve got Poe's watch, the one that he owned when he was writing it,” Semtner said.
The number of artifacts tied to the horror writer is growing. The newest addition? A rare letter penned by Poe in 1839.
“There is always things being discovered and coming into the collection,” Semtner said.
What makes this missive unique is the person to whom the struggling young writer addressed the letter.
The recipient?
None other than literary giant Washington Irving of Legend of Sleepy Hollow fame.
“It’s really a piece of literary history. This is like the passing of the torch from one generation to the next,” Semtner said.
In the letter, Poe was seeking Irving’s approval.
“This is Poe at the start of his career, struggling, he’s about to publish his first collection of short stories and he wants advice from an established famous author so he wrote him a blurb to help advertise his book,” Semtner said.
The keepsake was donated by Poe collector Susan Jade Tane from New York.
“It is a super interesting letter just to see how humble Poe is in reaching out to this titan of American literature to ask his opinion of his writing,” Rupy said.
The 185-year-old letter demonstrates not just what but how the author wrote.
“If you look really closely, you can see where the pen pauses where there’s more or less pressure you can actually follow the pen across the paper,” Semtner said.
Semtner said reading the letter is like standing over Poe’s shoulder as he put ink to paper.
"This is the closest you can get to meeting Poe in the flesh,” he said.
Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849, but he is very much alive on Main Street.
“You should remember Poe because he brings forth the weirdness, the darkness, the strangeness within us and shows us how to appreciate the bizarre things all around us,” Semtner said.
The letter, along with many other artifacts, helps Poe museum visitors see a more human side of the Richmonder who has been scaring readers for centuries.
“Artifacts like these put skin on history. It’s not just something in a book or on a website. These are physical, tangible reminders of Poe and they all have stories to tell. They were the witnesses to history," Semtner said.
You too can get up close and personal with the 1839 letter penned by this man at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in downtown Richmond six days a week.
Curator Chris Semtner will channel his inner Edgar Allan Poe on Oct. 26 at “Poe at the Pump House” in Richmond with four readings on the hour beginning at 2 p.m.
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