I headed over to the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library last night to hear actor and West Virginia native David Selby talk about his novel Lincoln’s Better Angel. For those of a certain generation, Selby will forever be remembered as Quentin Collins, the werewolf character from Dark Shadows, whom he brought to life from 1968 through 1971, but he also did a long stint on Falcon Crest, and recently popped up on HBO to portray Jane Alexander’s partner in the controversial series Tell Me You Love Me.

The event was billed as a reading, but what the the 60 or so of us who showed up ended up experiencing was less a reading than a full performance. Lincoln’s Better Angel tells the story of a Vietnam veteran who works as a caretaker on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial. One night, mourning the loss of his child, he encounters Lincoln’s ghost, and together they wander the city, discussing issues of race, family, and self-worth. Selby said that he wrote the novel based on a play he wrote and performed in many years ago, which is perhaps why, rather than simply reading from the book, he took about 90 minutes acting out the events of the story, fully inhabiting all of the characters. Though he kept a copy of his novel in hand, passages marked with yellow post-it notes, he rarely referred to it. (more…)