For more than half a century, a mysterious visitor would make an annual pilgrimage to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave site to leave three roses and a bottle of cognac to mark the anniversary of the author’s birth. The Seattle Times reports that for the first time in six decades, the illusive mourner failed to show on January 19 of this year. This unexpected absence has left many wondering if the stranger in the black hat and white scarf has met an untimely end, and if he’ll ever return. “I’m confused, befuddled,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. “I don’t know what’s going on.” The first written reference to the visitor was published in a 1949 issue of The Evening Sun of Baltimore. Since then the mysterious mourner has developed a following of his own, with Jerome and many other Poe enthusiasts staking out Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, to watch the dark figure leave his gifts at Poe’s grave stone each year.
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