Knowing Poe: The Literature, Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe... In Baltimore and Beyond



Maryland Public Television
2005 Webby Award Winner!
border
border border
Secret Writing
border
Random Raven
John Astin as Edgar Allan Poe

Transcript of John Astin as Edgar Allan Poe

Secret writing has always fascinated me, and I've given it quite some thought. To me, the ability to write and unlock ciphers requires a special analytical ability that not everyone possesses-even if they are otherwise quite sharp in their thinking. However, as I said in "A Few Words on Secret Writing," "Few persons can be made to believe that it is not quite an easy thing to invent a method of secret writing which shall baffle investigation. Yet it may be roundly asserted that human ingenuity cannot concoct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve." In other words, you can solve anything.



border
border