The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe by Stacy King

In 1836, Poe was impressed enough to write to the author of The Last of the Mohicans, requesting a contribution to his literary magazine. 'No spectacle can be more pitiable than that of a man without the commonest school education busying himself in attempts to instruct mankind on topics of polite literature,' he wrote.

Afterward, Poe's reviews of English suddenly took a turn. Once good friends, English and Poe had a falling out after English made fun of Poe's prowess with the ladies, doubting that he had received love letters from a suitor. Poe believed Emerson was a “mystic for mysticism’s sake,” and was scornful of the “so-called poetry of the so-called Transcendentalists.” 4. RALPH WALDO EMERSONĮmerson ridiculed Poe's style, calling him a “ jingle man.” He even found one of Poe's most celebrated works, “The Raven,” lacking: “I see nothing in it,” he said. I might often-and often do-dissent from your opinions in the latter capacity, but could never fail to recognize your force and originality, in the former.” 3. “I confess, however, that I admire you rather as a writer of tales than as a critic upon them. I care for nothing but the truth and shall always much more readily accept a harsh truth, in regard to my writings, than a sugared falsehood. “I have read your occasional notices of my productions with great interest-not so much because your judgment was, upon the whole, favorable, as because it seemed to be given in earnest. On June 17, 1846, he dropped Poe a note, writing, Hawthorne took Poe’s criticism in stride. After reading a review copy of Hawthorne’s Mosses from an Old Manse, Poe denounced his fellow author as “peculiar and not original.” But as a critic, Poe wasn’t one to whitewash things. Heidegger’s Experiment), and even asked him to write for The Stylus, his literary journal. He actually loved some of Hawthorne’s work (especially Dr. Poe’s disdain for Hawthorne was more professional than personal. Poe is dead and gone, and I am alive and still writing, and that is the end of the matter.' 2. Longfellow had the last word after Poe died, writing this to a colleague: “My works seemed to give him much trouble, first and last, but Mr. Poe called him “the GREAT MOGUL of the Imitators,” saying he was guilty of “the most barbarous class of literary robbery.”

Poe was thoroughly unimpressed with Longfellow and believed that the “Paul Revere's Ride” poet was a plagiarist. In honor of his birthday, here are five of Poe’s most vitriolic critiques. In fact, his contemporaries were some of his biggest detractors-and, as a literary critic, he didn’t always think much of them, either. There are a lot of Edgar Allan Poe fans out there, and just as many who think he was a hack.

The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe by Stacy King