Alex Beam would have to be in New York last Superbowl Sunday to write this column. Even his dubious-sounding "amicable" cup of coffee with BC's Poe professor seems to contain little or no factual reporting from Boston. For example, it's untrue to assert that "Boston is taking furtive steps toward its own tribute to Poe." As a member of the Poe Foundation of Boston, I can attest that there has been nothing furtive about them. On the contrary, the steps have proudly involved a public art development process, guided by the Boston Art Commission, that has probably been unprecedented in its outreach and openness to public input. (See the Poe Square Public Artwork Public Forum at http://poeboston.blogspot.org.) In my opinion however, the fundamental disrespectfully unreported fact concerning this piece is that the Poe public art project was inspired in the first place by the fascinating Poe-Boston Bicentennial exhibition created in 2009 as a primary result of years of Poe scholarship by Paul Lewis. "The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston," which he curated, drew more than 25,000 people to the Boston Public Library. But presumably, Beam was not among them. He makes no mention of it preferring to be demeaning. And presumably – given numerous other factual errors ... "and so on" ... in his column, he has not since taken the trouble to become familiar with the exhibition (where it is preserved online at http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/english/poebostonexhibit/). If his professed desire "to be fair" on behalf of the Globe and its readers were true, it would have been the least he could do.

Heck. Punctuation at the end of the two links above need to be removed or they won't work. Better use them here: The Poe Square Public Artwork Public Forum http://poeboston.blogspot.com The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/english/poebostonexhibit/