The Poetry Foundation has put together a free MP3 download and accompanying Washington map and guide for residents and tourists to relive the city's poetic past and experience the current poetry scene. Narrated by poet Elizabeth Alexander, who read her "Praise Song for the Day" at President Obama's inauguration, the tour starts off at the Library of Congress. Here, Archibald MacLeish became the first U.S. poet laureate, appointed by Franklin Roosevelt. On the steps of the Capitol, tour participants can imagine the aging Robert Frost, blinded by the noon sun and unable to read what he had prepared for John Kennedy's inauguration, instead reciting from memory "The Gift Outright." Walt Whitman's former home where he lived during the Civil War is noted. In the early part of the 20th century, two of the major Harlem Renaissance writers, Jean Toomer and Langston Hughes, resided in northwest Washington. Honoring Hughes who was discovered while working as a busboy here, today's poetry hub, included on the tour, is located at the Busboys & Poets Restaurant in the U Street Corridor.
Just as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code launched literary tours in Europe, his book "The Lost Symbol," set in Washington, D.C., has fans following the book's clues throughout the city. Destination D.C. has written a guide, starting at the Visitors Center of the Capitol Building and continuing through a tunnel to the Library of Congress. The U.S. Botanic Garden, the Washington Monument, Washington National Cathedral, the Smithsonian Institution, Freedom Plaza and House of the Temple are other stops. Employees of the Temple, national headquarters of the Scottish Rite Masons' Supreme Council, say that tourism there has risen 400 percent since publication of "The Lost Symbol."
For anyone who has fantasized about being James Bond, Spy City Tours, in conjunction with Washington's unique International Spy Museum, are a must. Gray Line motorcoaches carry "spy recruits" on a 2.5-hour tour of 25 espionage sites. Former intelligence officers tell their stories, and the tour group participates in an interactive mission. Starting and ending at Union Station, prices for the tour include admission to the museum. Washington is home to over 10,000 spies, making it the spy capital of the world, according to International Spy Museum sources.
