Books

Edgar Allan Poe, Quintessential American Writer

It’s time to acknowledge just how influential he was.

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Oct 25, 2026 5:40 AM

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Who is the quintessential American writer? Whenever anyone starts kicking around that question, some predictable names turn up: Mark Twain, Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison. Rarely, though, does anyone mention Edgar Allan Poe, even though Poe is arguably the most influential American writer of all. In fact, after poking around online, I found just one site that listed Poe as No.…