Poe, E.A.

[calimac]

I had to be reminded that today is the 200th natal anniversary of Mr. Poe. I shall accordingly attempt to retell the occasion of my favorite Poe reference.

The original home of The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore was in the mall below a city-owned parking garage. Though this was on the ground floor, its aspect was more dank and subterranean. The garage, which still stands today, was constructed largely of brick, and to find the bookstore one needed to traverse what seemed to the new visitor as long winding passages.

What I forget at this length of time was whether anybody actually did this, or if it was just a notion talked about. I recall it as a suggestion from the imaginative brain of Andi S. She said that on the brick wall facing the store a chalked inscription had, or should, appear, in fevered block capitals tracing the words,

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MONTRESOR!"

Comments

If I may...

[(Anonymous)]

In fact, if i may explain a bit more detail, it appeared that the original plan for this building, with shops below and parking above, was to have two elevators to take you up to the four or five floors of parking. They did not build six floors, and never put in a second elevator. There were buttons for two imag...er non-existing floors (7 and 8 simply didn't exist but folks would try to push those buttons, causing us giggles from time to time) and there was one elevator. You could see that the second had been planned by the bricked in doorway.

Thus the inspiration.

I'm not a fan of EAP, but I admit to sending his action figure to a good friend, Baltimore writer Laura Lippman, who wrote one of her series mysteries about "the Poe visitor".