Little known Poe fact: In addition to being the master of the macabre, the father of the modern detective novel, and one of my all-time favorite writers, he was also apparently the inventor of the Allen wrench:
I kid, of course. And yet my jaw still aches a little bit from the irritated teeth grinding to which I succumbed as I stared at this placard. I found it while strolling about the D.C. National Portrait Gallery this past weekend. Strangely enough, I’d never been to this particular Smithsonian museum. It’s quite beautiful and filled with an eclectic array of paintings, photographs, and sculptures that could easily consume the better part of a day if you’re so inclined to indulge in a serene saunter through the museum’s many halls.
Leave it to me to find the one editorial error that would be the fly backstroking along in my otherwise lovely soup. Beyond my own personal reasons for cringing whenever I see Edgar Allan Poe’s name misspelled in this way, I can’t help but feel an even greater level of offense for the one-two-three punch of it being misspelled in this particular location:
- Let’s start with the fact that this placard is hanging in a museum located in the heart of Poe country. Although he never called Washington, D.C., itself home, he lived and died in the confines of a circuitous path that ranged from Richmond to New York City, with frequent stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore, which became his final resting place. For all intents and purposes, Poe is a local literary hero. For that reason alone, we should know how to spell his name properly.
- His name is misspelled on a placard describing a photograph of Stephen King, the writer who is arguably the modern-day heir to Poe’s macabre legacy. It would be like placing a placard next to a portrait of Poe and referring to “Steven King.”
- Last, but certainly not least, this is a placard located in a museum. Maybe it’s just me, but I kind of expect a greater level of quality control involving materials associated with museums. After all, the very etymology of the word “museum” denotes a building dedicated to the “Muses” of study and art
