As a contemporary figure, to summarize, Poe was a vigorous agent in the upbuilding of the American magazine, a stimulator of honest critical judgment, a writer of a few poems and a few tales of the finest but the most attenuated art. At his lowest he is a purveyor of thrills to readers of literary inexperience, people with just a shade more maturity than the habitual matinée-goer; and at the other end of the scale he serves as a stimulant to the decadents who are weary of actual life and real romance, whose minds are furnished like the apartment in "The Assignation," in the embellishment of which "the evident design had been to dazzle and astound." At his highest, however, he has exerted an extraordinary influence not only on those who have fallen completely into his ways but on several prose writers of distinction who have bettered their instructions. Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle, Stevenson, Chesterton, are only the beginning of a list, and in only one language, who have taken up the detective story where Poe laid it down. Wells and Jules Verne have developed the scientific wonder-tales. Bierce, Stevenson, Kipling, Hardy, have written stories of horror and fantasy; and the touch of his art is suggested by many who have absorbed something from it without becoming disciples or imitators of it or refiners upon it. BOOK LIST =_Individual Author_= EDGAR ALLAN POE. Works. Virginia edition. J. A. Harrison, editor. 1902. 17 vols. Another edition. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, editors, 1894-1895. 10 vols. Best single-volume editions are: J. H. Whitty, editor, 1911, and Killis Campbell, editor, 1917. Poe's chief works appeared originally in book form as follows: Tamerlane and Other Poems, 1827; Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, 1829; Poems, 1831; Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 1838; The Conchologist's First Book, 1839; Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1839; The Raven, and Other Poems, 1845; Tales, 1845; Eureka: a Prose Poem, 1848; The Literati, 1850. =Bibliography= The best is by Killis Campbell in the Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 452-468. See also Vol. X, Stedman-Woodberry edition, and Vol. XVI, J. A. Harrison edition. =Biography and Criticism= The standard life of Poe is by George E. Woodberry. 1884. BASKERVILL, W. M. Southern Writers. BEAUDELAIRE, CHARLES. Edgar Poe, sa vie et ses oevres. 1856. BROWNELL, W. C. American Prose Masters. 1909. CAMPBELL, KILLIS. Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. II, Bk. II, chap. xiv. CAMPBELL, KILLIS. Introduction to Edition of Poems. 1917. COLLINS, J. C. The Poetry and Poets of America. FRANCE, ANATOLE. La vie littéraire, Vol. IV. GATES, L. E. Studies and Appreciations. 1900. GRISWOLD, R. W. Memoir of Poe (with Poe's works). 1850-1856.