the timboucher experience

It was advertised in yesterday’s newest edition of the City Paper under the heading of “Viewing of Poe’s Body:”

View Poe’s body before the internment. Noon-11pm, Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, 203 N. Amity St.

After a quick flurry of emails, texts and phone-calls, I coordinated with a friend and fellow historical co-conspirator to see just what kind of carnival tricks the City of Baltimore would be playing with the memory of what has become, more or less, its patron saint.

Not knowing this at the time (I tend to pride myself on running off into the void without all the details at my disposal), but yesterday marked the 160th anniversary of the renowned literary figure’s death. The rather theatrical premise, I guess, was that Poe’s “body” would be available for public viewing at his former residence (now deep in the ghetto), followed this weekend by a funerary procession and “interment.”

I’m not exactly sure if they’re going to bury the fake body we saw (for the cost of $5 cash) laid out in an upper room of his tiny house, but who knows… From a Yahoo article:

But on Sunday, Poe’s funeral will get an elaborate do-over, with two services expected to draw about 350 people each — the most a former church next to his grave can hold. Actors portraying Poe’s contemporaries and other long-dead writers and artists will pay their respects, reading eulogies adapted from their writings about Poe.

“We are following the proper etiquette for funerals. We want to make it as realistic as possible,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.

Everything except actually having the body, of course, as far as “proper etiquette for funerals” goes. The forged body they do have was commissioned from a local artist:

Jerome said he’s gotten calls from people who thought he was going to exhume Poe’s remains and rebury them.

“When they dug up Poe’s body in 1875 to move it, it was mostly skeletal remains,” Jerome said. “I’ve seen remains of people who’ve been in the ground since that time period, and there’s hardly anything left.”

Instead, Jerome commissioned local special-effects artist Eric Supensky to create an eerily lifelike — or deathlike — mock-up of Poe’s corpse.

Personally, I thought it would have been funny if they had an actor laying in the coffin who would, at suitable intervals, begin to stir and freak out assembled visitors… but I guess that wouldn’t necessarily fall under the “proper etiquette” category they were going for.

Outside the house, I talked to a couple local guys, one of whom said he “did work” for the house, gardening and whatnot. I said I heard something about them having Poe’s body in there. He said he didn’t know, but that would probably “show a film” about him once we were in there.

“A film? I want to see his body!”

No body though, and when we did get to the actual viewing room, there were three or four girls in I’d say about their early to mid-twenties sitting round, holding court. I asked what the story was, what was going on here. Noone replied, I edged forward towards the body.

“Well, isn’t that something?” I whispered.

When we got back outside, I broke the news to Poe’s neighbor: “Man, they didn’t even show us a film! What a scam!”

We did, however, get to sign a guestbook which will supposedly be put into a time capsule. I promptly entered a text link after my name to monumentcity.org, our own technological effort at making the history of this fair city come alive.

I guess there’s always The Anointing of the Sick and Veneration of Relics to look forward to… Also as advertised in this week’s issue of the City Paper:

“With the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, Court #2257, at the St. Francis Xavier R.C. Church. 1501 E. Oliver St., Baltimore, MD 21213. Fri, 10/16 from 7-9pm. For more info, call Bernadette 410-323-9094.”

• This is how I wanted Poe’s body to look…
• “Tell Casilda to keep a colt for me.”
• Shabti, Servants of the Afterlife
• Visits from the Dead
• Pall-bearers