Text: John E. Reilly, “Conclusion,” Poe in Imaginative Literature, dissertation, 1965, pp. 170-171 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 170:]

The evolution of Poe's reputation is a remarkable chapter in the annals of American literary history. In some respects it resembles a Poe hoax on a grand scale. At its heart is an illusion, the legendary image of Poe. Planted by Poe himself, this illusion germinated in his lifetime and throve for more than half a century after his death. Ironically, the illusion was cultivated not only by admirers of Poe but by detractors, especially by enemies who in their efforts to assassinate his character unwittingly made his image more fascinating and thereby assured it a long and hardy life. Only with the emergence of the historical Poe in recent decades has a substantial measure of success been achieved in laying the old image, the illusion, to rest.

What kept the illusion alive for so many decades, what gave it its remarkable vitality was its impact upon the imagination, its appeal to some of the deepest feelings in an age of romantic sentimentalism and vestigial puritanism. No record of this appeal is more vivid than the numerous poems, dramas, novels, and short stories Poe has provoked or inspired in the more than century and a quarter from 1827 to the present. This imaginative literature records the variety of responses to Poe during his lifetime, responses ranging from admiration to contempt, from affection to outright hostility. It measures the exquisite irony in efforts to defame Poe in the years immediately following his death, the exquisite irony of a maligned [page 171:] image which became an object of pity and public remorse, a cause célèbre which culminated in the crescendo of emotion that marked the centennial celebration of Poe's birth in 1909. Finally, imaginative literature bears witness to the decline of the illusion in the decades since the centennial, a decline reflected in the dearth of poetry after 1940 and in the dilemma encountered by the dramatist and the fictionist who would exploit the illusion in the face of the historical Poe who has been gradually emerging through the efforts of professional students over the past fifty years.

Imaginative literature obtains its significance, then, from its connection with the legendary image of Poe. It was not among the forces which helped to shape or to promote the image. It was not among them simply because its influence has been negligible. None of the fiction has succeeded with the public; all of the dramas which managed to reach the stage or screen have failed miserably; and the largest audiences reached by poetry devoted to Poe have consisted of participants in public testimonials, participants needing neither conversion nor persuasion to induce sympathy for the dead poet. Although it neither shaped nor promoted the legendary image, imaginative literature did record the impact of the image upon the American mind. Herein lies its significance, herein lies its connection with virtually the only Poe the world knew for more than fifty years after his death. This image, this figment is an historical fact, it is a cultural phenomenon, and it is an aesthetic accomplishment.