Anybody know what the differences were between poe and the transcendentalists? Or even what they had in common? I'm very interested to hear of any correlation between the two.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Answers

Though Poe warred with the Boston crowd which ended up being led by the transcendentalists he did write "Eureka" his own cosmic attempt to develop a philosophy that seems at the outset to resemble pantheism. Articles on Eureka and text at www.eapoe.org and poedecoder. One difference is that his sources were the sciences of the times not eastern religions. His mysticism seems independently arrived at from a long internal wrestling with life and death. Combined the Eureka experience seems a conforting synthesis that Poe was very enthusiastic about- for a time. It inspired no disciples or enthusiasm as had Emerson's works- and no money either.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001