2009 Events
Edgar Allan Poe’s Descendant Tells Tales of Poe in St. Petersburg
During the week of September 7, Dr. Harry Lee Poe, the Director of the Poe Museum in Richmond and President of the Poe Association, gave a series of different presentations on Poe’s literary heritage and on the Poe family at a number of different cultural institutions. As a keynote speaker at the Russian National Library’s international conference on Edgar Allan Poe, Dr. Poe spoke about the Poe family and Poe’s dream to one day visit St. Petersburg. When opening the Poe Exhibit at the National Library later that day, Dr. Poe mentioned that through this exhibit Poe had finally fulfilled his dream of visiting Russia’s northern capital. The next day, over seventy students gathered at St. Petersburg’s American Corner to hear Dr. Poe speak on Poe and the Mystery Story – insisting that the presentation be done only in English, without any translation. Earlier in the week, close to two hundred students gathered to hear Dr. Poe speak at two major universities – St. Petersburg State University and Herzen Pedagogical University. Dr. Poe’s talks on Edgar Allan Poe’s Big Bang Theory and The Power of Imagination were a big hit generating dozens of questions and requests for his email address so that students could continue asking him questions after his return to the United States. As a result of his talks, St. Petersburg State University has invited Dr. Poe back to the city in order to teach a special university seminar on Edgar Allan Poe next spring.