An examination of American author Edgar Allan Poe is coming back to life at MTSU Wednesday, April 8.

The unfinished segment of “A SymPoesium on Place” will be held at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, in the Simmons Amphitheatre of the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building.

Dr. Harry Lee Poe

Originally scheduled for Feb. 18, only the first half of the program, “Poe and Europe,” was presented due to inclement weather.

The second half of the analysis, titled “Poe and the Universe,” will delve into how the master of the macabre perceived science and spirituality in terms of place.

Edgar Allan Poe, circa 1848 (“Ultima Thule” daguerreotype)

Dr. Harry Lee Poe, an indirect descendant of Edgar Allan Poe and a professor at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, will describe his ancestor’s concepts of space and science in “Everywhere Man: Poe and the Universe” during the symposium.

“(Edgar Allan Poe’s) conception of the universe is one that sort of permeates many of his writings,” said Dr. Philip Phillips, associate dean of the University Honors College and a Poe scholar.

Harry Lee Poe also will put some Edgar Allan Poe artifacts from his personal collection on display from noon to 6 p.m. in the fourth-floor special collections area of the James E. Walker Library. At 3 p.m., Harry Lee Poe will describe his artifacts with a gallery talk.

Dr. George Poe, a professor of French and French studies at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and a cousin of Harry Lee Poe, will discuss some additional materials he will contribute to the display. A brief reception will follow.

“A SymPoesium on Place” and the display of Poe artifacts in the James E. Walker Library are free and open to the public. The University Honors College, the Virginia Peck Fund and the MTSU chapter of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi sponsor them.

“We want the symposium to be something that people who have any level of interest in Poe to enjoy,” Phillips said.

You also can listen to a conversation with Dr. Harry Lee Poe that first aired Feb. 9 on WMOT-FM (89.5 and www.wmot.org ) here.

For more information, contact Phillips at 615-898-2699 or philip.phillips@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)