Why is Edgar Allan Poe always popping up in pop culture?
Dazzling master of horror and doomed romance, Edgar Allan Poe is both original American goth and gloomy hero of modern pop culture. His influence cannot be escaped: he is the founding father of the American short story; he invented detective fiction; and his destabilizing voyages filled with marvelous technology and perpetual unease paved the way for science fiction. What is more, hardly any other American author appears with the same regularity on everyday pop culture artifacts as Poe, where he is usually depicted either as a mad genius or as some kind of tormented genius. Searching Poe’s name on Ebay, for example, yields nearly 2,000 results. Likewise on Amazon, over 2,000 items link to his name, and even the Target search engine comes up with nearly 500 results. Our website “PoeP Culture” takes a deep dive into the world of Edgar Allan Poe merchandise by close-reading a wide variety of Poe artifacts. Check out the About page for more details about the origins of this website. More importantly, have a look at our Objects page for the stunning Poe artifacts and essays collected on this site! Just click on the respective photo of the item you are curious about in order to read the accompanying essay.
The Kansas State ENGL 660 “Edgar Allan Poe; or, Once upon a Midnight Dreary” class hopes you are enjoying our research and writing about PoeP Culture!