Poe Mo
I got a tip from a FOP (Friend of Poe) this morning that the Poe Box is back — this time in Poe Square!
From his email:
Artist Heidi Schork, director of the mayor of Boston’s Mural Crew, put the finishing touches on her creation on a utility box in Poe Square (at Boylston and Charles Sts.) today (Monday, May 17). A product of the city’s PaintBox program, the artwork continues the celebration of Edgar Allan Poe’s many connections to Boston where he was born on Jan. 19, 1809. The birthplace just two blocks south of the square at 62 Charles St. South, regrettably, was razed in 1959 and is today an NSTAR power plant parking lot.This pic of artist Heidi Schork with the new box was also attached:
Elements of Schork’s design include a likeness of Poe, a quote from an early poem “Spirits of the Dead,” the silhouette of a raven “perched upon a bust of Pallas,” a Latin inscription “Hic natus ubique notus” (Born here, known everywhere), and it is topped by an image of a scarab, or Gold Bug, recalling one of the Boston native’s most popular stories.
Possible planning for a permanent public art installation on the site is currently under consideration by the Browne Fund Commission, an agency that administers a trust fund that has long supported such projects around the city.
Hopefully this time it's "for ever more"!
Effin' Frogpondians!
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Mark: Did you miss the recent Poe exhibition at the Boston Public Library? Too bad, I think you would have enjoyed it. Yes, Poe hated the Frogpondians, by which he meant the Puritan-bred, moralistic croakers of Boston's literary elite. Because Poe made it his mission to defend art for art's sake from what he saw as the preachy, truth-serving didacticism of the Brahmin intelligentsia of the day. And he did so by stirring up such passion that the so-called "Longfellow War" has overshadowed some personal reasons he cared so much: He was born here. His older brother was born here. He knew his mother had found her best friends here. He discovered his first literary mentor here. He served in the army here. He published his first book here. He published his last works here. He was romantically involved with two New England women toward the end of his life, and he was apparently determined to move back here in the weeks before his unexpected death in 1849 at age 40. Yes, the persistent historical myth that Poe loathed Boston, as you put it, with every fiber of his being, was inspired by the forcefulness of his critical arguments in opposition to what he saw as misguided ideas about literature. Supported along the way by slanders about his sanity, character and personal habits, the myth is about all many people remember. But the truth is there's a lot to suggest that Poe thought of Boston as a place of refuge and new beginnings and that he had many positive feelings about the place - as well as, certainly, some that were not so much.
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Check out the notice of this at Universal Hub: http://images.universalhub.com/2010/hes-poe-boy
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Hi Mike - I'm writing an article about Heidi Schork, and I really like the photo that you have of her. Did you take it? Would you consider letting me use it? (with attribution to you of course.) Thanks!
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Hi James -- I actually received the pic from a member of the "Poe Square Public Art Committee", who gave me permission to use it. I am sure that if you wanted to use it you could say "Photo courtesy the Poe Square Public Art Committee".
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