Is There a Reason That the Tales of Edgar Allen Poe Are More Accepted Today Than in the Era He Wrote Them?

Question by Terry: Is there a reason that the tales of Edgar Allen Poe are more accepted today than in the era he wrote them?
Are not some of Poe’s tales based in folklore? (tiebreaker question)

This is one of the true Mythology & Folklore questions I will post this day. I will give best answers, but I will ignore urls except as Sources.

Best answer:

Answer by Keeper of Myths and Legends
Poe’s tales were not well accepted in his era because people weren’t ready for stories like that, at the time they were far to… horrific.
As for were some of them based in folklore…
I think “The Gold-Bug” was based in some folklore, I also think that some of his detective stories were.

Answer by child of atlantis
After reading his biography I can say his genius was sadly hampered by life’s misfortunes. Poe did have incredible opportunity, but unfortunately was unable to work the mechanics of the literary world to achieve his dreams of success during his lifetime.

Poe suffered from poor health, depression, alcoholism, possible drug addictions and a personality that didn’t fit into society. He wallowed in scandal from early on, from a marriage to his thirteen year old first cousin, to a drunken performance at the White House, and later a failed suicide attempt over the rejection of a lover, just to name a few. His affairs were noised about by his enemies and this surely hurt his popularity in the public eye.

However, some of his later work was actually well received, the shining star being “The Raven,” which he initially presented under an assumed name. His last work “Eureka” a long “prose poem” of a semi-scientific and metaphysical cast was the tenth and last of the poet’s works published during his life. The nature of Eureka forbade its acceptance.

I think his work would have been more popular during his day if he could have concentrated harder on his mission. Other writers of the time wrote in vaguely similar styles (although none quite as sensational as Poe) and were much more successful. It maybe wasn’t so much the work as it was the author which prevented his writings from gaining more notoriety. He constantly revised his works and what we now have are the results of many revisions. I don’t know if the first works were as compelling as the later ones but this could have been a factor. Today, most don’t particularly care if someone drinks too much, has affairs or suffers from mental illness, we only care about the final product (which we have in the compiled writings of Poe). Still, I believe if Poe were alive today he would have to work as hard, if not harder, to be recognized.

The Gold Bug, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The Raven and Eureka are possible examples of works that were based in folklore.

Edit:
I forgot to include that Poe was also considered a “hacker” and had even been accused of plagiarism. The plagiarism was in text books and it was a common practice in those days, so it seems he was being singled out. Why? Maybe some were jealous. Others considered his writings to be the work of demons, and this may well be true in the sense that he was plagued with “demons” throughout his tormented life.

Many people don’t know Poe was a versatile writer and wrote in many genres. I had never heard of a Poe comedy before reading his biography. Regardless, they apparently weren’t very popular then or now. The stories of his which we can never forget are the tales of woe, horror and desperation.

He was also an author whose books managed to get banned at libraries in America during an era of profound close mindedness.