Poe, Edgar Allan - John Brooks Moore (essay date 1926)

John Brooks Moore (essay date 1926)

SOURCE: Introduction to Selections from Poe's Literary Criticism, F. S. Crofts & Co., 1926, pp. vii-xix.

[In the following essay, Moore argues that Poe's main ambition was to be a magazine proprietor. He therefore examines Poe primarily as a journalist who was committed to the growth of the American magazine culture and, through it, the construction of an American literary criticism distinct from the English critical tradition.]

As soon as Fate allows I will have a magazine of my own, and will endeavor to kick up a dust.

—Poe to P. P. Cook, 1839.

I

That Poe was apparently first of all a journalist—neither a poet nor a writer of fiction—cannot well be doubted. Those of his contemporaries who knew him and left some record of their knowledge almost invariably owed their acquaintance with Poe to his journalistic...

[The entire page is 3599 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass