MARK DAWIDZIAK WORKING ON 213th ANNIVERSARY POE BOOK

 

Former BJ and PD entertainment critic Mark Dawidziak, who has authored books about Mark Twain, “The Night Stalker” TV series starring Darren McGavin, Dracula, Peter Falk as “Columbo,” Is working on another masterpiece, this one a biography of Edgar Allan Poe’s 213^th birthday to be published in 2023 by St. Martin’s Press.

 

Mark has chatted with Stephen King and the late Anne Rice over the years about Poe. To misquote Poe to discuss Mark piling up book after book in between putting on Mostly Literary Theatre Company performances about Mark Twain and Dickens, “Quote the raven, forevermore!”

 

And I suspect the Mark had a chat with Poe, his family cat, about the merchant of fright.

 

Boston native Poe (1809-1849) authored “The Raven,” which gave me nightmares, “Lenore,” “Annabell Lee” and “El Dorado.”

 

“The Raven” involves mourning over the death of Lenore when that frightful damn bird comes knocking.

It begins:

Once upon a midnight dreary,

while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door”

 

You’ll have to wait for Mark’s bazillionth book for find out forevermore.

 

I think Mark and former BJ columnist Thrity Umbrigar are in a marathon to see whose stack of books reaches Empire State Building height first.

 

The competition is stiff, though. David Bianculli, Regina Brett, Bob Dyer, David Giffels, Stuart Warner, Terry Pluto, Steve Love, Dick McBane, Russ Musarra, Jane Snow, Don Rosenberg, Brian Windhorst, Andrea Louie and Chuck Klosterman aren’t slouches either. And Chuck Ayers brings fictional characters to life with his drawings for comics and books.

The many talented writers who made my 26 years at 44 E. Exchange Street the most delightful stretch of my 43-year newspaper career.