[Female Announcer] Direct Connection is made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities, and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) Live from Maryland Public Television, this is Direct Connection with Jeff Salkin.

This Direct Connection special edition; Edgar Allen Poe is a co-production of MPT and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

[Male Announcer] Baltimore celebrates the 200th birthday of Edgar Allen Poe.

For a list of events, mysterious tours, and intriguing exhibitions, nevermore2009.com.

[Jeff Salkin] Good evening, and welcome to a special edition of Direct Connection.

Tonight on the 200th anniversary of his birth, we look back at one of America's greatest writers, Edgar Allen Poe.

He only lived to age 40, but his work lives on, perhaps evermore.

Here's MPT's Charles Robinson.

[Charles Robinson] Thanks a whole lot, Jeff.

I'm at the Poe room at the Enoch Pratt Library.

This room was established in 1934 and contains a treasure trove of Poe memorabilia.

You see, Poe the writer was very complex.

He used to move from city to city.

Sometimes, he wrote and edited for various publications.

Seems he was always searching, sometimes for a patron, sometimes for love, but more times than often, for good tale to tell.

- [Charles] The tales that surround the writer of a subject of fact, fiction, and myth.

One thing is for certain, Poe ushers in several new and distinct American writing genres.

- [Jeff Korman] The detective story, I think, is probably what he's most known for, and it really does, in a way, go hand in hand with his mysterious death.

- [Charles] Jeff Corpsman of the Enoch Pratt Library has intimate knowledge of the writer.

He showed off some of the library's prized possessions, including lots of hair from the writer and his wife.

- [Jeff K.] The hair that's straighter down here on the bottom is the hair from Edgar.

This heavy lock that's at the top is his wife, Virginia, who of course died in 1847, a few years before he did.

- [Charles] There are several theories as to where the ideas for Poe's stories were born.

- [Jeff J.]

You would open the newspaper, just like today's writers.

They'd look for inspiration.

For example, being buried alive, Poe didn't dream this up.

People were accidentally buried alive, and you could read about it in the newspaper.

He wrote comedies, he wrote science fiction.

He wrote adventure stories, and he wrote horror stories, not because he was insane or obsessed with death and darkness.

It's because we were.

He gave the public what they wanted, and he did it very well.

- [Charles] Jeff Jerome is a curator at Baltimore's Poe House.

The house holds rare images.

It includes a portrait of Poe's first wife, Virginia, and this photograph of Poe without his mustache.

Controversy seemed to follow the writer from the time of his death to the present.

How Poe died has become a tale unto itself.

The last known sighting of the writer was at this watering hole in Baltimore's Fells Point.

Papers tell us he died at what was Church Hospital.

- [Jeff K.] There probably are 20 different theories, both medical and sensational about what happened to him in his last days.

- [Charles] The latest controversy surrounds what city should own Poe's remains.

Poe was born in Boston.

He spent considerable time in Richmond, Virginia, Baltimore, the Bronx, New York, and Philadelphia.

- [Jeff J.]

I find all of this very amusing and a little frustrating because Baltimore has been celebrating Poe since the early 1870s.

Suddenly it's the Poe bicentennial, and you have all these people coming out of the woodwork saying, "Oh, Poe belongs in Boston.

He belongs in Philadelphia.

He belongs here."

Well, where were you years ago?

- [Jeff K.] Do you know about the recent controversy with Philadelphia?

He lived in Philadelphia for six or seven years.

That house still stands there and Philadelphia and Baltimore, or more or less going at it at this point.

But as we here in Baltimore, like to say, "We've got the body."

- [Jeff J.]

Baltimore has been promoting Poe since the early 1870s, and we're going to continue to promote Poe long after the bicentennial.

I predict that many of these cities that are suddenly embracing Poe will drop Poe like an empty bottle of Montiano once the bicentennial is over with.

- [Charles] Who knows what Poe would think about all of this attention.

Poe would be amazed though, his name and his writings are recognized around the world.

I'm Charles Robinson.

- [Jeff] And joining us now in the studio are Jeff Savoy, secretary and treasurer of the Poe society of Baltimore.

Michael Fallon, senior lecturer of creative writing, literature and composition at UMBC and Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore museum of art.

Thanks to everyone for being here.

We appreciate it.

My first question about Poe is I don't think of a feel-good writer.

Why has the, why has the work endured?

- [Michael Fallon] Well, I think people like being scared and Poe really scared you.

I mean, I think that, I mean, Poe is interesting.

The way he tells a story is interesting.

The subject matter is interesting, but I really think that Poe scares ya.

That's one reason.

- [Jeff] Do you see that as the lasting contribution?

What, what was the mark on the literary world, Jeff?

- [Jeff Savoye] I think the one thing you have to remember is that Poe is not just pouring his life out into his works.

Too many people tried to read that into it.

He's aware of a reader, he's writing for a reader.

He wants to enthrall them.

And he understood what they were looking for.

He had to defend some of the, some of the works saying that, you may say, it's in bad taste, but it's what readers are looking for.

And I think the fact that he's still being read 150 years later, shows that he knew what he was talking about.

- [Doreen Bolger] He's really timeless.

He's someone who continues to captivate people to the present day, even though he's from the 19th century, which is really rather unusual.

And it was the form as well as the content in terms of short stories versus longer form writing.

- [Michael] Well, I think that short stories are the thing that Poe was remembered for the most.

I mean, uh...

It's hard to think of anybody that has had more of an impact on the short story than Poe.

I mean, his name comes up.

And he influenced, I mean, I saw a list of, on the internet.

I saw a list of writers that claim to be influenced by Poe.

And it's an incredibly long list.

And European writers almost all claimed them.

I mean, Thomas Mann, Herman Hasse claim to be influenced by Poe.

Um, Voorhees, Dostoevsky, Mallarme, Baudelaire...

I mean the, the French, the Germans and the Russians love him.

- [Jeff] Jeff, you just finished editing a collection of Poe's letters.

What have we learned?

What did you learn in this process?

- [Jeff S.] Poe's a very complex person and it's difficult to get a real sense of him.

Just reading biographies, just reading through maybe, too many people are trying to find Poe's life in his works again.

You read through the letters, you really see someone who is going through all the phases He writes a truly pathetic letter to his aunt, Mariah Clem, when he's basically proposing to his cousin, Virginia, and it's, it's really very revealing.

And yet other letters you can see that he's adopting a mask for something he's trying to submit to an editor or someone who's trying to borrow some money from.

The letters back and forth between Poe and John Allen, his foster father, are really fascinating because Poe was indebted to John Allen for many things, and you can see the resentment that's also there.

And John Allen kind of wanted him to go into business and Poe certainly did not want to do that.

He didn't think John Allen was willing to support him in thing that he really felt that he needed to do, which was to go into literature.

- [Jeff] Let me remind our viewers.

If you have a question about the Poe legacy you can give us a call at the number on the screen or email us by visiting our website at mpt.org And Doreen, I wanted to talk to you about the intersection of Poe words and art.

- [Doreen] What's really surprising is that Poe's reputation rose so quickly in France.

And I think that goes to what Michael was speaking about earlier, how many European writers took up an interest in Poe and specifically in France, Charles Baudelaire, and Stefan Mallarme who were writers who had, in turn, circles of artists around them.

My own favorite story is about Paul Gauguin, who is well known for his trips to Tahiti, his fabulous paintings, but also did a portrait of Mallarme with the ravens standing right on his shoulder, looking into his ear.

- [Jeff] I think, we have that.

- [Doreen] We do have an image of that.

Yes.

And the night before Gauguin went to Tahiti, he had an enormous gathering with his friends.

And at that gathering, "The Raven" was read in French right before his departure.

There's something wonderful about a major work by an American writer being the focal point of all these avant-garde French artists in France at that pivotal moment in our history.

It's hard to think of another American writer who had that stature.

- [Jeff] I mean, we have a bunch of images here, and I know if we can just flip through them for a second and see what else we want to comment on, but there's the iconic image of Poe himself.

And there, this is a sketch of Matisse.

- [Doreen] Yes, actually only Matisse was a great fan of Mallarme.

And so he drew Poe's portrait.

All of these French artists of course had no idea, no direct contact with Poe who had died around the middle of the 19th century.

So they based a lot of their images on daguerreotypes and early prints.

And this particular image by Matisse from the cone collection here at the BMA is wonderful because it's simplified to just the most essential lines, but he really captures Poe's spirit.

- [Jeff] Ah, and here's one of the classic images.

And if we click ahead there, there's another one.

I noticed he wasn't smiling.

- [Doreen] Poe never seems to be smiling, you know.

And I think in a way the image of Poe was as intriguing for visual artists as actually as his writing, they were fascinated with him as a man.

And we see that continue today.

I'm sure you both have innumerable stories about the ways in which people are just fascinated with the story of his life.

- [Jeff S.] To be fair, people very rarely smiled in daguerreotypes types.

It was an uncomfortable process.

You can just sit still for a very long time, - [Doreen] like looking into a mirror... - [Jeff S.] The chairs often had these little devices behind them that would hold your head still so that you didn't move the period of exposure.

Good point.

- So it was not, it was a very serious somber occasion.

- [Jeff] Yeah let me ask you this, for people watching, who have seen all of the publicity about this 200th birthday and want to read something by Poe.

This is a beginner's guide to Poe.

Where do you start?

What piece do you recommend?

Do you go right to the Raven or what stands for you.

- [Michael] "The Cask of Amontillado."

- [Jeff] And why?

- [Michael] It's a terrific story.

Well, it's, to me, it's that it's a beautifully, beautifully written story.

First of all, it's funny, it's off, it's darkly funny.

It's very funny.

And it's scary.

And um, if you read it out loud, I think the beauty of his prose just comes really comes through.

- [Jeff] Is there at the other end of the spectrum, is there a piece that's less accessible, maybe more intricate, something that you don't want to start with?

- [Jeff S.] I would not start with Eureka.

- [Michael] We were talking about that earlier.

Yeah.

No.

- [Jeff S.] That was probably nothing Poe really wanted to be remembered for, but it's a very complex theory of cosmology.

And although there are a lot of people who are in astronomy today, who, who hold it in some respect, it's a very sort of mystical strange piece.

- [Jeff] Now, Mike, I'm sorry Doreen.

- [Doreen] Well, I liked the stories, really where he concentrates on fear and terror.

These wonderful abysses that exist in the ocean and "The descendant to the Maelstrom" or "Manuscript in a bottle".

It really encapsulates all of the fears you have, you know, about that big dark ocean out there.

You could just be sucked into it or the, or "The Pit and the Pendulum," which takes up really a victim who's been condemned by the inquisition and thrown into a cell with a large abyss in the center of it.

So, I think that a lot of those to me are wonderful because they, they really do capture the deep fears we have as children.

And even as adults.

- [Jeff S.] I truly second, "The cask of Amontillado" was probably my favorite of the Poe stories.

The "To the Tell-Tale Heart" is certainly just eminently readable.

- [Michael] Great story.

- [Jeff] The other public perception, I guess, is that Poe was a pretty disturbed individual.

True?

Exaggerated?

- [Jeff S.] Well, it's true that people see him as that and a lot of that is because again, they're trying to read Poe into his stories, but again, they're only looking at the handful of stories that people tend to read again today.

He wrote far more than that.

He wrote things like "Lionizing" and "Why the Little Frenchman Wears his arm in a Sling" There's a very funny stories, but people aren't reading those, they are reading the horror stories.

So, I think people feel a little guilty in some cases for enjoying some of these tails.

And in a way it lets them feel more elevated if they can blame Poe for it.

- [Michael] I do want to say that, you know, Poe was a genius and he knew it.

And I think that made life difficult for him.

People didn't like him because he was a tough to take.

I mean, he was a... - [Jeff S.] Very incompromised.

- [Michael] ...very, very smart guy.

And um...also he didn't mind making fun of people.

- [Jeff S.] To their faces.

- [Michael] Yeah!

(laughter) - [Jeff] How quickly did he achieve fame?

Is it the Raven that did it?

- [Jeff S.] No, he was actually, I guess it was the gold bug I think that first really gave him a lot of fame.

He was already somewhat well-known as a critic and an editor, but the gold bug in 1843 was so popular that they had to print the dollar newspaper.

And it's been estimated, there were 300,000 copies of this newspaper printing, which is unheard of.

- [Jeff] That's a take.

Go ahead.

- [Michael] It wasn't for the French.

I don't think he'd have the reputation he has.

If it wasn't for a Baudelaire translating him.

The French loved him.

And I think that made him respectable here.

- [Jeff] Kitty on the line from Baltimore county.

Kitty.

Thank you for calling.

Go ahead.

- [Kitty] Hi.

I'm just interested to know that nobody mentioned that he had a terrible alcohol problem.

Is that something we want to glide over?

I have to tell you that I'm over 80 and that I had a very close friend who was a generation ahead of me, whose father yet another generation ahead with Edgar Allen Poe's doctor.

And she said that, you know, they had the worst time with him because he would never pay his bills.

What he did was he gave his father, he gave her father poems in payment and the father would come home outraged and throw them in the fire.

So, the daughter who was a poet herself, and a rather remarkable woman would sit in front of the fire, trying to get them to come back into her dear little head, but nobody mentioned the alcoholism.

And also on the positive side, I know, I don't know whether it's true or not, but we were brought up in school educated that Edgar Allen Poe was the initiator of the short story that prior Edgar Allen Poe's, there was no short story.

Let alone the poems.

- Kitty, Great questions.

Thank you so much for calling.

Let's ignore the alcohol part now, No, I'm just kidding.

Let's start with the alcohol part.

Jeff, what do you say?

- [Jeff S.] I always said the Shakespeare people have to constantly deal with questions as to whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote the plays and the Poe people always have to deal with questions of Poe's alcoholism.

I think it is fair to say that Poe was an alcoholic in a technical sense.

He certainly had apparently an unusual sensitivity to alcohol.

A very small amount apparently made him quite intoxicated.

And it was very bad for him and yet he continued to do it occasionally, but he was not a chronic drunk.

He was a binge drinker.

He would have a moment of stress, particularly after Virginia became very ill.

So he would drink maybe for a week or two, and then he wouldn't drink for months or even years.

So, it's role in his life is it was something he struggled with constantly.

It is not a serious influence on his writings as far as we can tell with perhaps, you know, minor exceptions.

But, it's a genuine issue.

- [Jeff] All right, what are we to make of this pseudo controversy about which city has the most strong, strongest claim to Poe?

Is it Baltimore?

Because in Charles' his story, we have the body... - [Michael] That's it.

- [Jeff] Or Philadelphia, Boston and so forth.

- [Jeff S.] Well, I like to say there's plenty of Poe's legacy to go around.

We shouldn't be beating up on each other, trying to score points.

We should be cooperating.

Certainly what the Poe society tries to do.

We we've done events with Richmond and I certainly, friends with people in Richmond, get a lot of information from them.

Supposed to do a lecture in Philadelphia in a few months at the Bronx cottage.

It was just beautiful.

Beautiful little house where the bed Virginia died and is still in that house.

So, I think we should be cooperating and not necessarily emphasizing who deserves what.

- [Jeff] Although the publicity is not bad.

- [Jeff S.] The publicity has been very, very effective.

- [Doreen] I think, we should just all jump in and have more and more events.

- [Michael] I think it's fun.

Let's argue about it.

(laughter) - [Jeff] And what's happening at the BMA.

There's an exhibit that goes on for the next year or so.

- [Doreen] We're planning an exhibit to open in October and run through December of this year into January of 10.

Which will feature some of the great works by these French artists, which, who, as you say, so early appreciated Poe.

We're also working with the Enoch Pratt library and art on purpose to have community workshops where people have an opportunity to interpret the themes of post-work it through their own writing and visual efforts.

- [Jeff] Anything, 30 seconds that we want to get the word out about that the Poe society might be doing.

- [Jeff S.] Well, there are lots of things going on.

Our chief thing is our annual lecture in October, but most things are being publicized through the website.

So.

- [Jeff] Does the scholarship evolve on Poe or we know all that we're ever going to know.

- [Jeff S.] Oh no, we've learned a number of, very recently an important document was found Poe filed for bankruptcy.

And it lists people that he owed money to and the amounts that he owed.

So, important things keep popping up all the time.

- [Jeff] All right!

We have to leave it there.

Jeff and Michael and Doreen, I want to thank all of you for being with us.

We appreciate your time.

And when we come back, we will visit the grave site of Edgar Allen Poe.

First to look at an upcoming Poe event.

- Hi, I'm Rhea Feikin.

And this is an artworks update.

Over the holidays an art exhibit can be quite soothing and just take a little bit of the edge off the holiday crush.

One show is opening.

That's entitled: "Framed reality" and it's at Maryland, our place in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

It's an exhibition of four figurative pagers who are inspired by childhood memories, folklore and narrative.

They're all very different, but each artists evokes a unique and highly personal response from the viewer.

Check this show out and give yourself a holiday present.

"Framed reality" opens at Maryland art place in Baltimore's Inner Harbor on December the 12th.

And it runs through January 31.

More information can be found at mdartplace.org I'm Rhea Feikin.

And this has been an Artworks update.

- Mystery presents Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple".

- Welcome to Bertrams hotel, Miss Marple.

- Bertrams has a reputation.

- Would it be possible to see the body?

I thought Bertrams was too good to be true.

- Let's hope that we don't have repeat of last night's excitement.

- Miss Marple finds murder at Bertram's hotel on mystery - Saturday night at 9 on MPT.

- And now to our Josh Davidsburg from Westminster hall, the final resting place of Edgar Allen Poe.

- [Josh Davidsburg] This is a cemetery at Westminster hall.

About 2000 people are buried here.

It's one of the oldest cemeteries in Baltimore.

People who were buried here, range from war veterans of 1812 to founding families of Baltimore, including Edgar Allen Poe.

Now I'm joined here by the curator of the Edgar Allen Poe house, Jeff Jerome.

We're standing in front of a tombstone marked Edgar Allen Poe.

Why are there two tombstones here?

- [Jeff Jerome] Well, it seems like even in death, poor Poe couldn't stay in one place.

When Poe died in Baltimore, by coincidence, they buried him with his grandfather.

His grandfather and grandmother are buried in this location.

And his brother Henry is in this location.

In 1875, because of complaints from people that they couldn't see the grave of Poe, because the gates were locked.

They moved his body from this location to the monument up front, simply to put them in a more prominent spot in the graveyard.

That's why there are two graves, the original grave right here, and the second grave at the entrance of the cemetery.

- [Josh] Now, Poe gets a lot of visitors.

One in particular that everybody talks about.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

- [Jeff J.]

I don't want to reveal too many secrets, but I can tell you that since 1949, this man has been coming into the graveyard in the middle of the night on Poe's birth date, January 19th.

And he leaves three red roses and a half filled bottle of French cognac.

Expensive French cognac.

Martell's.

- [Josh] Yeah, Why cognac?

- [Jeff J.]

Well, Poe didn't drink it.

He didn't write about it.

He didn't make any references to it.

I suspect it's just the favorite label of the guy who leaves it.

So, we've been watching this guy for a number of years, but we make no attempt to interfere or to identify the person.

I think it's a very touching and theatrical tribute, which is fine with me.

- [Josh] And what do we know about them that we could talk about?

- [Jeff J.]

Well, we know that it's a man and we know that he's dressed in black with a white scarf and whereas a hat that's all that we reveal about this person.

- [Josh] Now is it the same man who's been doing it the whole time.

- [Jeff J.]

Well, it appears to be a father and sons tradition.

We know that because several notes were left over the years, indicating that the father had passed away the man who originally started this tribute and that his two sons out of respect for their father have continued this tradition.

- [Josh] Thanks, Jeff.

- [Jeff J.]

Sure.

- [Josh] And the cemetery here is open sunrise to sunset.

I'm Josh Davidsburg, back to you in the studio.

- [Jeff] Josh, thanks very much.

Thank you for watching and be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 7:30 for a special Direct Connection, we will have analysis of the inaugural address of then President Barack Obama.

Also join us Wednesday night on MPT at 7:30, yet another special Direct Connection Governor, O'Malley joins us for the monthly "Asked the Governor" program.

You can email your questions for the governor in advance to direct connection@mpt.org.

For all of us at MPT, I'm Jeff Salkin, Thanks for watching and have a good night.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Baltimore celebrates the 200th birthday of Edgar Allen Poe.

For a list of events, mysterious tours and intriguing exhibitions nevermore2009.com - [Female Announcer] This Direct Connection, special edition Edgar Allen Poe is a co-production of MPT and the Enoch Pratt free library.

Direct connection is made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.