How Did Edgar Allan Poe Influence Literature

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Edgar Allan Poe’s death was over 160 years ago but he is still very well-known because of his books: The Raven, Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, and more. He was the creator of the horror genre and master of the detective genre. At the time his books were not liked because of the often frightening and morbid theme but over the generations they have been recognized as “classics.” In Edgar Allan Poe’s day his stories were new and very different than the books people were used to. This caused people to not acknowledge his books until after he died. Edgar Allan Poe influenced literature by fighting for authors’ rights, writing stories based on his life experiences, and putting new ideas of the time period in his works. Edgar Allan Poe influenced literature through his lifelong battle of fighting for authors’ rights. Edgar Allen was not the only writer to be affected by the lack of copyright laws, he was just the only writer who would stand up to his publishers. During Edgar Allan Poe’s time period there were no such thing as international copyright laws and “Publishers often refused to pay their writers or paid them much…show more content…
This shows that to most people writing was considered a hobby and not a full time job. “In 1826 Edgar Allan Poe left Richmond [Virginia] to attend the University of Virginia… It was also very unusual for someone to be financially independent on their writing career because it was difficult to make a living off of writing at the time. Most people during Edgar Allan Poe’s time “were able to devote themselves to writing because they had access to family fortunes or because they had comfortable positions at universities.” a luxury Poe dreamed of having. (“Poe Was The First American Author To Live By His Writings.”

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