Why Edgar Allan Poe Isn't Just a Sad Boy | It's Lit

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We remember Edgar Allan Poe for his tales of horror and the macabre as well as inventing the entire Detective Fiction Genre. But unlike many of the great authors of Western classic literature, he has become an icon unto himself, recognized to this day by name and face almost more than the titles of his stories and poems. But his legacy is more complicated than school books may have lead us to believe.

Hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, It’s Lit! is a show about our favorite books, genres, and why we love to read. It’s Lit is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

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[firestorm]

Poe would probably have appreciated the irony that his enemies' rebranding campaign only added to his legend and helped secure his immortality.

[theeducatedfool]

Teenage angsty me: I relate to Edgar Allan Poe

Adult me, a musician and a music reviewer: I somehow relate to Edgar Poe even more

[WarpedLord]

I think the fact that pretty much all of us likely thought... "Who???" when Rufus Griswold's name came up means Poe got the last laugh (even if it was postmortem).

[mollywantshugs]

Griswold: “Poe has no point of honor”
Also Griswold: *cheats Poe’s family and slanders his name over a minor personal slight*
Yes, Poe was the scoundrel here

[SedatedGhostwriter]

"He wasn't goth. He was just poor."
I FEEL ATTACKED.

[CTheng]

In turning Poe into a sadboy icon, Griswold made it so that Poe become one of the most famous literary name ever, while he became irrelevant. The irony.

[ButterflySeraph]

Poe was really just vibing and everyone went after him like school bullies on a playground

[skyden]

"To quote 'The Raven': 'haters gonna hate.' "
- lol. I must've missed that version of the poem. Great video.

[donchon]

So I imagine that we should be thankful most of these guys didn’t have Twitter.

[AnjelCaido]

Edgar Allan Poe is an icon of literature and his legacy will last for millenniums

[rachaelbao]

Just reading the names of his enemies was uplifting. To think someone was once named Elizabeth Fries Ellet.

[wren_bean]

What's crazy is that we don't think about E.A.Poe the way we do about Oscar Wilde; a profoundly creative, if sometimes eccentric, razor-sharp wit. It's tragic that his honesty and refusal to take life too seriously in his own time was twisted so cruelly into a false caricature that lives on in posterity.

[grapeshot]

I love The Simpsons version of The Raven. James Earl Jones's narration was spot-on.

[ILikedGooglePlus]

And neither the angels on heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Could ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

[mypal]

Edgar Allan Poe conveys so much emotion with his poems.

[mrs.g.]

I'm glad people are learning the true cause of Poe's death. I also read somewhere that he might have contracted a deadly disease and was delirious. It was NOT alcoholism!

[garrettstambaugh]

Hans Pfaall was one of my first exposures to Poe outside the schoolhouse canon, and it's what really turned me into a fan. It's killer parody, humorous and scathing all the way through, and full of bright, colorful ideas. And so much of his work is more like it than the dark and dreary.

[kelleyceccato]

Am I the only one who thinks "The Cask of Amontillado" is actually quite funny, in a super-dark way? "Yes, Fortunato, I am a mason" (shows trowel).

[madlycan]

I always wondered why people only ever associated him with haunt and horror. a huge body of his work was with a great dose of humor. thanks for filling in the gaps : D

[dracodis]

My favorite of his burlesques is probably "X-ing a Paragrab, " not only because it's story is more general humor instead of topical, but also because it just might be the earliest use of "X-treme" in printed English, and the thought of this very 80s-90s pop-feelign word appearing in an 1849 short story of famous "Sad Boy" Poe just tickles me.