In the American Grain Chapter Summary & Analysis - Edgar Allen Poe Summary

Edgar Allen Poe Summary

In this dual literary appreciation and historical survey, Williams begins right away denouncing the narrow assessments of Poe and his work. He says that Poe was not as we in our "woolyheadedness" have defined him, a fluke of nature, a "'find"' for the French, or a "ripe but unaccountable" craftsman. He also was not a Macabre genius fixated on the grotesques and the arabesque, per se, insists Williams. Instead, the author maintains, Poe was "a genius intimately shaped by his locality and time." Williams then explores his assertion that locality is at the core of Poe's poetry and prose, for Poe had, he says, a genius for it, had an unparalleled ability to understand, appreciate, and capture America, New World America, in particular and locality, or place, in particular. Poe asserted his genius motivated by two primary and correlated local causes, writes the author: a need for a fresh start,...
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