Monday, November 2, 2009

Don't Light a Torch on Michael Wigglesworth's Grave

Today's Maine Sunday Telegram features a story about Walter Skold, founder of the Dead Poets Society of America. Skold visits the graves of American poets, documenting them and occasionally leaving poems and trinkets.

My favorite part of the article was this anecdote from Skold's visit to Michael Wigglesworth's grave in Malden:

Visiting a graveyard at night can be a dicey proposition and requires special permission. Skold learned that lesson the hard way last year on Halloween when he was nearly arrested in Malden, Mass., where he and his son lit torches at the tomb of the Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, Puritan author of the "Day of Doom."
"Little did I know that there was a little woman who watches over the cemetery and she told the police that there were people performing satanic rituals," he said.

1 comment:

W. Stauffer said...

Hello, This is Mr. Skold, of the Dead Poets Society of America. I am guessing you may be a member of the AGS? I am hoping to make it to the June conference, and am sending in an abstract for a talk.

I've been back to Wigglesworth at midnigt again, BUT no torches this time. I was just trying to get a cool picture with actual fire in it... The police thought it was pretty funny; the firemen were less endeared.