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A Halloween program is scheduled at the Crane House in Asbury Park Wed., Oct. 30.
It will be Mischief Night at the Stephen Crane House, 508 Fourth Ave., Asbury Park Wed., Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. when readings are scheduled to celebrate Edgar Allan Poe, the Halloween season and d Stephen Crane’s 153rd birthday.
It seems strange that two great American authors with such wildly disparate writing styles should be somehow linked. The Poe-Crane connection is due to yet another great American author. It was the 21 year old Willa Cather who met the 23 year old Stephen Crane in Lincoln, Nebraska, who first made the connection.
According to Cather, Stephen had a copy of Poe’s short stories with him. Both Poe and Crane had such a prolific amount of writing produced in their short lives. Poe died at the age of 40 in 1849; Crane died at age 28 a half century later. Frank D’Alessandro, former owner of the Crane House, will be reading two gruesome short stories by Poe: “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
Both stories involve Poe’s obsession with “immurement”: walled imprisonment as a form of execution.
After the readings there will be refreshments in keeping with the Halloween season and including a birthday cake for Stephen Crane. For those who dare to remain, there will be a screening of “Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Terror” with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone.
All members of the Asbury Park Historical Society are invited to join gratis, but encourage non-members to attend with a donation in any amount. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the program to begin at 7 p.m.
