Edgar Allan Poe Accomplishments

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Edgar Allan Poe is known for writing some haunting and dark pieces of Gothic Literature. Despite many finding Poe’s work to be too macabre, too fixated on death, and too pessimistic, he is still often considered one of the great American authors, but not because of his wide critical acclaim, mostly because of his large body of work that is easily analyzed and studied, not because most find him to be a true artist. Poe’s literary career started with books of poetry that he wrote while he was in the military and attending West Point. His work received little to no attention outside of those who knew him well, however after leaving West Point, he chose to focus himself in prose instead of poetry and become a serious writer. After gaining some recognition for his work, he jumped around from publication to publication, producing numerous poems, book reviews, critiques, and stories in this periodical, gaining a following. Poe’s …show more content…

In another one of Patrick Quinn’s articles, “Profundities of Edgar Allan Poe”, Quinn talks about Poe’s status as an author in America as well as in France. He talks about how many classic American authors write off Poe, and compares it to how the French see him. In the article, Quinn refers to Valéry, who specifies “Poe, along with Leonardo da Vinci, as the major influence in his literary and philosophical career” (5). He goes on to talk about how Poe is one of the three most influential poets in modern French literature, and calls Poe the “pivot in which for the past century French literature has turned, this by itself is sufficiently extraordinary” (5). He talks about how Poe’s work can strike the most gifted critic tongue-tied on a subject of great enthusiasm. Poe’s work creates such a deep emotional response in some, that it becomes impossible to quantify in words, which is stark in contrast to how America sees his

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