Hundreds attend Poe statue unveiling

After more than 150 years, Edgar Allan Poe has finally returned to Boston.

A statue of the famous author and poet was unveiled yesterday at Charles Street South and Boylston Street, known as Edgar Allan Poe Square, with recitations of his work by Boston authors Matthew Pearl and Meghan Marshall to about 400 onlookers.

“Poe’s statue is life-size, but the statue of the raven beside him is enlarged and represents his creativity, which was larger than life,” said Paul Lewis, chairman of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston and professor of English at Boston College.

“The Raven,” a narrative poem originally published in 1845, helped make Poe a literary household name.

The statue was sculpted by Stefanie Rocknak, a professor of philosophy at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y.

Poe was born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809, but moved to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, where he died at the age of 40.