Edgar Allan Poe would have turned 201 yesterday, but the mysterious stranger who has marked the birth of the author for the last 60 years failed to show up at his grave.

Every year since 1949, the stranger – known locally as the Poe Toaster – has left three roses and a half-bottle of cognac on Poe's grave in Baltimore on his birthday. The roses are believed to represent the three bodies buried beneath the monument – Poe, his mother-in-law and his wife Virginia; the significance of the cognac is not known.

But this year, as around 30 fans – one of whom had flown in from Chicago – waited all night in the cemetery for the visitor to show, he failed to appear. He usually leaves his gifts between midnight and 5.30 am. "I was very annoyed. I've been doing this since 1977, and there was no indication he wasn't going to show up," Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, told local paper the Baltimore Sun. "Everyone was very sad, but there was still a feeling of goodwill. We were there, and we paid our respects to Edgar." The fans occupied themselves instead by reading aloud from Poe's writings throughout the night.