SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Coming up, Elizabeth Alexander talks about writing poetry on demand - in this case, for a presidential inaugural.
But first, we mark a milestone.
Unidentified Man: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...
SIMON: Monday, January 19, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the American master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. The city of Baltimore, where Poe lived on and off - there's a place full of his haunts, including his house on Amity Street, and the tavern where he drank before his death in 1849 - Baltimore is holding a year-long Poe commemoration. And tonight, actor and Baltimorean John Astin will present an hour of Poe's works at Westminster Hall. The actor, who is perhaps always best known as Gomez in the "Adam's Family," joins us now from the studios of WYPR in Baltimore. Mr. Astin, thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. JOHN ASTIN (Actor): Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: And tell us how you first maybe felt Edgar Allan Poe moving through your life as a Baltimorean.
Mr. ASTIN: Sometime before I was 12, my mother gave me "The Purloined Letter" to read. When I put the book down, I was so stunned by the ending of "The Purloined Letter" that to this day, I remember all of these details of the room when I sat there pondering. And then, oh, I guess, "The Pit and the Pendulum" was next, and "The Cask of Amontillado." And when I was older, I became attracted to the poetry and...
SIMON: To hear you read it, I mean, there is something extraordinary about those rhythms and the internal rhymes and his choice of language that must be so both gratifying and challenging for an actor.
Mr. ASTIN: Yeah, it's both. I don't think there is anything like it in the rest of literature.
SIMON: Because you've become something of a Poe scholar, maybe you can explain this to us. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston and lived a number of places, including Richmond, Philadelphia and New York. Of course, he died in Baltimore. Why do we associate him so much with Baltimore? Why does that wind up becoming the signature city in his life?
Mr. ASTIN: Well, two things. First, it's where he met or at least established the relationship with the young woman who would eventually become his wife: his cousin, Virginia, his first cousin Virginia. And it was a joyful time for him. So I think that's one important aspect of his Baltimore time. The other, of course, is that he died here, and he died mysteriously. We don't really know what happened, and I think that mystery continues.
SIMON: But is there still someone who steals into the graveyard and leaves - is it a rose - on his grave every year?
Mr. ASTON: Every year, yes. And a glass of brandy.
SIMON: That's right. The Poe toaster, he's called, or she.
Mr. ASTON: Yeah, yeah. Whoever it is - none of us know.
SIMON: Two hundred years later, do you see - if I might put it this way - the ghost of Allan Poe when you move around Baltimore?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ASTIN: I see the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe all the time. He's in my home. He's at my shoulder. It's interesting. In preparing a one-person show, when I conjure up all these characters from his life, he shows up. He doesn't want to be left out.
SIMON: Mr. Astin, it's so nice talking to you, and...
Mr. ASTIN: It's a pleasure.
SIMON: And to Mr. Poe.
Mr. ASTIN: OK.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: John Astin, joining us from studios of WYPR in Baltimore. He's participating in Nevermore 2009, a year-long commemoration of the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe.
Mr. ASTIN: And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted - nevermore.