I'm trying to find critiques on Poe's stories by authors who were around during his time.

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2002

Answers

Try www.poecentral.com and www.eapoe.org. I'm afraid Poe tried very hard to criticize Longfellow, the most benign of the Boston crowd. Emerson took offense and termed Poe "the jingle man" though they shared some poetics in common. Mellville, trying to work his favors among the "Frogpond" establishment who ignored the slandered and discredited southerner seems to commit a grave sin of being almost unconscious of Poe's influence, notably the paralles between "Moby Dick" and the Pym novel. In defense you might say Melville used sources similar to Poe(Jeremiah Reynolds and South Seas explorations), but the parallels are numerous. In the "Longfellow Wars" Longfellow never took the bait and in fact Poe carried on a mad one person debate. Even Twain seems to dislike Poe on a personal basis though they too share much in common(except in the humor gift). Both Twain and Poe wrote devastating essays on J.F. Cooper that are well worth comparing. His fiend the Boston poet Lowell tweaked Poe in a poetic list of contemporary poets(there goes Barnaby Rudge, two fifths genius, three-fifths fudge") and learned Poe was not amused by criticism of himself. After Poe's death he was held in disrepute for 25 years until a revival of sorts gathered together better memories and critiques. Still the ill effects of the posthumous slander by his will's executor< Rufus Griswold linger today and obscure appreciation of Poe and his works.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2002

Lynn,

Try looking at 'Edgar Allan Poe: The Critical Heritage', by I.M. Walker (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986). This covers most reviews of Poe by his contemporaries.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2002

Why not just ask Poe?

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2003

I have no clue, I was trying to find the same thing!!! Let me know when u get a good website

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2003