Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of his Literary Milieu

In Poe's Literary Battles, Sidney Phil Moss offers a penetrating study of Edgar Allan Poe's career as a literary critic, situating him firmly within the contentious world of 19th-century American letters. Moving beyond the familiar image of Poe as the master of macabre fiction, Moss reveals the sharp-minded, combative critic who wielded his pen with surgical precision against the literary mediocrity of his time.

Moss examines the cultural and professional environment in which Poe operated—a milieu defined by rivalries between literary magazines, shifting aesthetic standards, and the personal feuds that often shaped reputations. Through close readings of Poe's critical essays, reviews, and public quarrels, the book illuminates how Poe's criticism was both an expression of his uncompromising standards and a survival strategy in a volatile publishing world. The study also addresses the tension between Poe's aesthetic theories and his own creative output, showing how his criticism helped define his place in American literature.

Drawing on extensive primary sources, Moss presents Poe not as an isolated genius but as an active participant in a vibrant, if often fractious, literary culture. Poe's Literary Battles is both an academic contribution to Poe scholarship and a lively narrative about the passions, politics, and polemics that shaped 19th-century literary life.