It's Lit: Why Edgar Allan Poe Isn't Just a Sad Boy
Edgar Allan Poe’s legacy is more complicated than school books may have lead us to believe.
We remember Edgar Allan Poe for his tales of horror and the macabre as well as inventing the entire Detective Fiction Genre.
But unlike many of the great authors of Western classic literature, he has become an icon unto himself, recognized to this day by name and face almost more than the titles of his stories and poems. But his legacy is more complicated than school books may have lead us to believe.
Poe's work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and international literature. His stories mark him as one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction. Many anthologies credit him as the "architect" of the modern short story. He was also one of the first critics to focus primarily on the effect of style and structure in a literary work; as such, he has been seen as a forerunner to the "art for art's sake" movement. French Symbolists such as Mallarmé and Rimbaud claimed him as a literary precursor. Baudelaire spent nearly fourteen years translating Poe into French. Today, Poe is remembered as one of the first American writers to become a major figure in world literature.
Hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, PBS’s It’s Lit! is a show about their favorite books, genres, and why they love to read. It’s Lit is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.
Edgar Allan Poe bio at poets.org