What was Poe's contribution to American Literature?

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2001

Answers

major poet, literary critic (established criteria for short story), short story writer (helped create the detective story), first major writer from the South, dark side of Romanticism, Gothic horror tales, literary theory, inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, inspired generations of horror writers including Steven King,punk rock fans today like him because of his darkness and themes of death and suffering, wrote one of the most memorable poems of all times-- "The Raven," wrote some of the most memorable tales of horror--such as "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-tale Heart," "Liegia," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado,"The Masque of the Red Death--many of these were made into B-movies in the 1960s directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price, Poe's influence is especially great in France, a country where he is held in higher esteem than in the U.S.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2001

His contribution from my point of view as someone growing up in the 1950s, was one of mystery and difference. It was intriging, sometimes sad and very bizarre, so different from the norm at that time. There was always so much left to the imagination, and at that time not much was known about him. In literature you had to pick an author, and being of the age of change, for example Elvis, in music I chose a rebel in poetry, some of it I did not understand. He was different, but at that time we did not know very much about him. Liegia was one I remember, one of my essays for Literature was about the Conqueror Worm? It has been a long time and I think he did a lot to create the !Horror! genre, but with tolerance and much more class than Freddie or Halloween . The TellTale Heart was a trip on guilt, a lot of imagination,made that possible, unless you can be in that time or circumstance. The things that are around the corner are much scarier than those you see!

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2005