Founder of Dead Poets Society visits bards’ graves

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) ― The founder of the Dead Poets Society of America is visiting graves and other sites associated with Jack Kerouac and five others in his effort to recognize fallen bards.

Walter Skold of Freeport, Maine, says the Dead Poets 2011 Magic Bus Tour is in Massachusetts on Friday to pay homage to John Whittier, Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, Louisa May Alcott and Kerouac.

The caravan led by Skold’s Poemobile is visiting graves, memorials and a childhood home, ending on historic Author’s Ridge in Concord, Massachusetts, with a special reading of Alcott’s works.

Skold has visited the graves of 225 American poets over the last three years.

Last year, he launched an effort to create a Dead Poets Remembrance Day on Oct. 7, the date of Edgar Allan Poe’s death.