SOURCE: "The Function of Terror in the Work of Edgar Allan Poe," in American Quarterly, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, Summer, 1966, pp. 136-50.

In the following essay, Garrison seeks to reconcile Poe's preoccupation with horror with his quest for "Supernal Beauty."

Critics who want to challenge Henry James' snobbish judgment that "an enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection"¹ should not assume that Poe's reputation as an American master is secure. It is not; in fact the lack of interest in Poe's work among undergraduate and graduate students grimly predicts that Poe, like his General in "The Man That Was Used Up," may turn out to be nothing more than an "exceedingly odd looking bundle of something."² With rare exceptions, extant arguments for Poe's front-rank status are inadequate and unconvincing, in some cases frivolous.³ No student of American literature with any sense of proportion...