Influence of Edgar Allen Poe

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The Influence of Edgar Allen Poe It is hard to find an American who has not heard the name Edgar Allen Poe. Known for his mastery of horror and romance, Poe has had exponential influence on American and European culture. This Boston native can be credited with quite an impressive list of accomplishments for someone who lived such a miserable life (“Edgar”). Poe has had a tremendous impact on film, music, and obviously literature. How Poe influenced films is clear. In the 1930’s Universal Studios produced The Raven and The Black Cat. These failed to hold true to Poe’s style of writing. They were very good by themselves but compared to Poe’s original work, they differed greatly. But, in the Early 1960’s, American International Pictures produced The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of the Red Death. These were, and still are, considered to be the best films of Poe’s work. They were still different from his original work, they had some added humor and a different style, but they were still horrifying and exercised the same major themes. A more subtle showing of Poe in film was in a movie called The Vanishing. The Vanishing had a connection with Poe’s The Premature Burial. They are two completely different stories and are set in different time periods, but they still showed a very strong connection to each other. Poe’s “The Murderers in the Rue Morgue” is considered to be the origin of detective stories. Many people additionally believe that Poe himself was the beginning of the long chain of horror and crime stories, and that numerous writers were influenced by him, even subconsciously. (Leigh) Edgar Allan Poe has influenced many musicians, much more than you would expect. Like his influence on films, he was more popular in Europe than in his home country, America. One composer that was influenced by Poe would be a Finnish
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