American Hauntings Dinner & Spirits
An Evening With
EDGAR ALLAN POE
An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe
Mineral Springs Hotel | Alton, Illinois
$46 Per Person
Next Available Date: April 13, 2024
SOLD OUT!
Join author Troy Taylor for another night of our “An Evening with…” series of events! This eerie evening will include a catered dinner, served in our private ballroom at the former hotel. After dinner, author Troy Taylor will be presenting “The Haunted Life of Edgar Allan Poe,” a look at the mysterious and macabre writer, his tragic life, unexplained death, and lingering hauntings.
Delve into the strange and bizarre world of Edgar Allan Poe, from his early life to his tragic marriage, his insane grief, his dramatically failed career, his links to an unsolved murder, and the mystery of what happened to the writer in the days before his unsolved death. Why did Poe disappear and then show up a few days later in an incoherent state, wearing another man’s clothes and carrying a stranger’s walking stick? Where did he go when he vanished and who was the mysterious “Reynolds” that Poe whispered about in his dying breath? Does he haunt the mysterious graveyard where his body is buried? Who is the stranger who appears at Poe’s grave each year on the anniversary of his birth, leaving roses and cryptic messages behind?
We’ll explore all this and more on this special night of mystery and madness!
About the Night:
Join us at the Mineral Springs in Alton, Illinois for another great event!
- Doors open at 6:00 PM / Dinner starts at 7:00 PM
- Events held at the Mineral Springs Hotel Located at 301 East Broadway in Alton, Illinois
- Limited number of guests for each event
- Private Event in the American Oddities Museum, which will open at 6:00 Pm for browsing by guests before dinner
- American Hauntings Bookstore located in the Museum so books will be available for purchase and can be autographed by Troy Taylor
An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe
Presented by Troy Taylor
Edgar Allan Poe was a man of mystery in his time and is still considered an enigmatic figure today. There is still much we don’t know about the man who wanted to be remembered only as a poet – and yet it has been his stories that have stood the test of time. He is a legendary author now, but was a failed writer in his time, except in Europe, where he was considered a genius. His writings were both complex and simple and both autobiographical and pure fiction – except for one about the murder of a young woman that was so close to the truth that he has been accused by some her murder.
Poe was always broke and had a drinking problem but played the part of a Southern gentlemen. His background was shadowy, often because he often rewrote his life history to suit his mood. He married his thirteen-year-old cousin and was utterly destroyed by her death and yet, after a period of insane grief, asked three different women to marry him only a month after she died.
And of course, his final five days of life are a blank slate. Even after more than a century and half of detective work, no one knows for sure what happened to Poe before he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland – or even what killed him.
Finally, strangest of all, are the locations where his ghost is still believed to walk, including a cemetery in Baltimore that plays host to an enigmatic figure that pays tribute to Poe each year on the anniversary of his birth.
It’s going to be a spooky evening of horror and the supernatural as we pay tribute to the history and hauntings of American writer, Edgar Allan Poe – and one you don’t want to miss!