how many and what awards did EAP win in his lifetime ?

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2002

Answers

You have to realize there were few awards and mainly just magazine promtotional contests to promote an infant American literature. Poe owon one early for his new style in "A Ms. Found in a Bottle" but felt ccheated when his poem Colliseum" came in second to the editor's entry.(Fistfight, Poe sort of lost that too).

Then he took a money prize for "The Gold Bug" and received international acclaim if not prizes for "The Raven."

Wasn't the first poet laureate of Britain Tennyson created long after Poe's death? Posterity awards the best prizes and Poe at least surpassed his contemporaries over time even though some wrote huge epics containing more lines than he wrote in a lifeltime.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2002

Not that it matters a great deal, but here goes anyway ...

Tennyson was not the first poet laureate, he was the 12th. The first was John Dryden who occupied the post between 1668-88. And there are those who argue that Ben Jonson had that title before Dryden.

During Poe's lifetime, the poet laureates were Robert Southey and, most famously, William Wordsworth. Somehow I doubt whether Poe would have been equal to the task of abandoning all poetic integrity and churning out bland lines to celebrate a king's birthday and the like.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2002