H.P Lovecraft on Edgar Allan Poe

I have several authors that I'm a big fan of, and read as much as I can of their works. Lovecraft is one, along with Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bernard Cornwell, Christopher Moore, and Hideyuki Kikuchi, to name a few. But if I was ever stranded on the proverbial desert isle, Poe is the author I'd want to have along: The Grand Master. I think this excerpt from Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature is telling, (from Chapter 7, "Edgar Allan Poe"...imagine that):

"In the eighteen-thirties occurred a literary dawn directly affecting not only the history of the weird tale, but that of short fiction as a whole; and indirectly moulding the trends and fortunes of a great European aesthetic school. It is our good fortune as Americans to be able to claim that dawn as our own, for it came in the person of our most illustrious and unfortunate fellow-countryman Edgar Allan Poe. Poe's fame has been subject to curious undulations, and it is now a fashion amongst the "advanced intelligentsia" to minimize his importance both as an artist and as an influence; but it would be hard for any mature and reflective critic to deny the tremendous value of his work and the persuasive potency of his mind as an opener of artistic vistas. True, his type of outlook may have been anticipated; but it was he who first realized its possibilities and gave it supreme form and systematic expression. True also, that subsequent writers may have produced greater single tales than his; but again we must comprehend that it was only he who taught them by example and precept the art which they, having the way cleared for them and given an explicit guide, were perhaps able to carry to greater lengths. Whatever his limitations, Poe did that which no one else ever did or could have done; and to him we owe the modern horror-story in it's final and perfected state."

I'm always surprised (but increasingly less so in this age of schlock- and fluff- horror) at how few people know anything of Poe beyond The Raven, and of those that do, dismiss his influence as boring or antiquated. What they fail to realize is what Lovecraft points out: without Poe, the modern horror tale as we know it, which has given rise to all sorts of sub-genres (some decent enough, some downright awful), wouldn't exist. Neither would detective fiction (as Poe created in The Murders in the Rue Morgue), or, arguably, science fiction (which some credit Poe with creating in Ligeia).

I'm in complete agreement with Lovecraft: Poe's influence in Literature cannot be underestimated. If you already read Poe's works, great. Keep reading and pas them on. If you don't read Poe...start!