Poe's Legacy

Here's a nice tribute to Edgar Allen Poe in the Baltimore Sun (via Maud):

Poe's Tortured Heart Still Beats In Today's Literature

I remember first reading "A Premature Burial" one night in college, just before going to sleep. Or trying to go to sleep--it gave me this weird bit of terrors that kept me up for hours.

I particularly like Louis Bayard's quote from the article:

"I think our culture has absorbed him so thoroughly that we don't always recognize him."

I can think of no greater honor for a writer than the acknowlegment that the writer has permeated our collective consciousness.