Is Poe the most influential American writer? A new book offers evidence

Re:Is Poe the most influential American writer? A new book o... by pmoriarty on Saturday June 05, 2021 @11:48AM (#27406020)

"Before his death in 1849 at age 40, Poe largely created the modern short story, while also inventing or perfecting half the genres represented on the bestseller list, including the mystery ("The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Gold-Bug"), science fiction ("The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion"), psychological suspense ("The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Cask of Amontillado") and, of course, gothic horror ("The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Masque of the Red Death," the incomparable "Ligeia")."

I love Poe, but whether he can be credited with inventing these genres is highly debatable.

On the origin of the mystery tale, Poe published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in 1841, and "The Gold-Bug" in 1843.

In 1819 ETA Hoffmann wrote "Mademoiselle de Scuderi".

To my knowledge, it was Hoffmann's work, written decades before Poe's, that was the prototypical detective story (featuring a female detective even!).

On the origin of the Gothic, Poe published "The Fall of the House of Usher" in 1839, "The Masque of the Red Death" in 1842, and "Ligeia" in 1838.

By then, the Gothic genre was well under way, with Horace Walpole having published the classic The Castle of Otranto in 1764. Ann Radclife (the mother of the Gothic) had published The Mysteries of Udolpho in 1794 and it was already parodied by Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey in 1817, long before Poe even started writing any of his Gothic fiction.

Science fiction has a very long history, and depending on how you define it could go back at least to the 2nd Century AD, with Lucian's A True Story (featuring travel to outer space, encounters with aliens, and interplanetary warfare), but if you didn't accept that as "true science fiction" there are plenty of other candidates which predate Poe, such as parts of the Arabian Nights (well over a thousand years old by the time Poe started writing), Gulliver's Travels (1726), Voltaire's Micromegas (1752), and of course Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is Poe the most influential American writer? A new book o... by bombcar on Saturday June 05, 2021 @12:31PM (#27406418)

Yeah there’s a distinction between inventing and popularizing. Heck, there’s a detective story in the Bible - Susanna and the Elders in the Book of Daniel.

But you can certainly become identified with a genre by being famous for it - and Poe arguably was that.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is Poe the most influential American writer? A new book o... by okareaman on Saturday June 05, 2021 @04:43PM (#27408316)

He invented his own Poe style, which I'm sure was influenced by whatever ideas people had about good stories at the time, but he brought his own interpretation to it. It sounds like people remember Poe's interpretations and those became stories that defined those genres, with a nod to whatever came before it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is Poe the most influential American writer? A new book o... by Eric_WVGG on Saturday June 05, 2021 @12:43PM (#27406532)

I think it’d be fair to call him the Stephen King of his day.

On the singular scale of "influential," I think that maybe popularity matters more than whatever he "invented," but he was indeed very, very popular.

[ Parent | on HN ]